Adjacent Words

Mayan definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

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, Maya]
2: a family of American Indian languages spoken by Maya [syn: Maya, Mayan, Mayan language]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1900 1. a member of the peoples speaking Mayan languages 2. an extensive language family of Central America and Mexico • Mayan adjective

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mayan Ma"yan, a. 1. Designating, or pertaining to, an American Indian linguistic stock occupying the Mexican States of Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Mayan peoples are dark, short, and brachycephallic, 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 places, and they possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, with records said to go back to about 700 a. d. 2. Of or pertaining to the Mayas.