Maya

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Maya \Ma"ya\ (m[aum]"y[aum]), n.
     1. (Hindu Philos.) The name (in Vedantic philosphy) for the
        doctrine of the unreality of matter, called, in English,
        {idealism}; hence, nothingness; vanity; illusion.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. (Hindu Philos.) the Hindu goddess personifying the power
        that creates phenomena. --[RHUD]
        [PJC]
  
     3. (Hindu Philos.) the power to produce illusions. --[RHUD]
        [PJC]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Maya \Ma"ya\ (m[aum]"y[.a]), prop. n.; pl. {Maya} or {Mayas}.
     1. the Indian people occupying the area of Veracruz, Chiapas,
        Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of
        Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Maya peoples are
        dark, short, and brachycephalic, and at the time of the
        discovery had attained a higher grade of culture than any
        other American people. They cultivated a variety of crops,
        were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton
        fabrics, used cacao as a medium of exchange, and were
        workers of gold, silver, and copper. Their architecture
        comprised elaborately carved temples and palaces, and they
        possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of
        hieroglyphic writing, with records said to go back to
        about 700 a. d.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]
  
     2. the language of the Mayas.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Maya
       n 1: a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize
            and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak
            between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding
            architecture and pottery and astronomy; "Mayans had a
            system of writing and an accurate calendar" [syn: {Mayan}]
       2: an ethnic minority speaking Mayan languages and living in
          Yucatan and adjacent areas
       3: a family of American Indian languages spoken by Mayan
          peoples [syn: {Mayan}, {Mayan language}]