mater

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
7
Words With Friends
8
Letters
5
Pronunciation
/ˈmeɪtə/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˈmeɪtə/ · /ˈmeɪtɚ/ (US)

Definition of mater

4 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (British, archaic, humorous, slang)Mother.
    “Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.”
    ““The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years,” he added.”
    “And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.”
    “Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later”
    ““Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.””
See all 4 definitions

noun

  1. (British, archaic, humorous, slang)Mother.
    “Their maters are all pals of my mater’s, and I don’t want to get them into trouble for aiding and abetting my little show, if you understand what I mean.”
    ““The mater will be delighted to see you again—after all those years,” he added.”
    “And then there’s the mater! Poor old mater! She goes about on tiptoe; she’s always watching me and pretending she’s not watching me; I believe she would like to have everything padded with feather beds. All the while she has been wanting me to do the goody book thing, get down on my knees and put my head in her lap and blub.”
    “Strangled by the wishes of pater / Hoping for the arms of mater / Get to me the sooner or later”
    ““Mater, you look well.” / “I am well. And you,” she said in that dryly prosaic deep voice of hers, “look healed.””
  2. A meninx; the dura mater, arachnoid mater, or pia mater of the brain.
  3. Someone or something that mates.
  4. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of 'mater (“tomato”).
    “"A mater sandwich would be better." Trixie said, "but I'll take it if that's all you got." As if we were woefully deprived of food. So Trixie had a tomato sandwich for lunch, carefully prepared by Lillian but for which she received no thanks.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Latin māter (“mother”), partly via Late Middle English matere. Doublet of mata and mother. Ancestor of matrix.

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

A single letter you can add to mater to make another valid word.

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