Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Mother.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Mother: in certain special uses. See
alma mater , and phrases below. - noun In anatomy, one of two membranes or meninges of the brain, outer and inner, separated by the arachnoid, and distinguished as dura mater, or dura, and pia mater, or pia: so called from some idea that they produce the brain.—
- noun The large metallic disk which forms the foundation of an astrolabe, and carries at its circumference the graduation upon which the indications of the alidade or index are read.
- noun A Middle English form of
matter .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun See
alma mater ,dura mater , andpia mater .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an informal use of the Latin word for mother; sometimes used by British schoolboys or used facetiously
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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WORD CORRECT PRONUNCIATION alma mater _alma mater_ apparatus _apparatus_ apricot _apricot_ attaché _attasha'_ audacious _audashus_ ballet _bal'la_ blasé _blaza'_ blatant _blatant_ chasten _chasen_
Practical Grammar and Composition Thomas Wood
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In college, (my alma mater is an engineering school where the ratio of guys to girls was 4: 1) the female students always quoted the following: “The odds are good, but the goods are odd!”
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I have to agree that your alma mater is the undergraduate school, in my case CCNY.
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And the acting talent from my alma mater is actually good.
It was SOOOO Long... sidewinder 2002
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Between the human mother and the alma mater is a strong resemblance.
Industrial Education 1908
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Like so many donations, John Lyons's gift to his alma mater is rooted in nostalgia.
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The gift to his alma mater is part of a seven-year, $1 billion fund-raising campaign that the school publicly announced last week to help boost its endowment, fund the increasing need for scholarship money, redevelop its Livingston campus and more than double the number of endowed chairs to attract and retain faculty.
A Scarlet Knight Rescues Rutgers Shelly Banjo 2010
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The letter, to Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and Bank of America, cited Bank of America's "failure to observe and perform, in mater ial respects" its duties as the servicer for the bond deals.
Bondholders Pick a Fight With Banks Ruth Simon 2010
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The fact of the mater is that there are far more successful startups in the bay area than anywhere else.
Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC 2009
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Another “famous” quote from my alma mater is “where the men are men, and so are the women” …
granny commented on the word mater
as in, "Look at them purdy maters on the vine!"
April 2, 2007