Definitions for mafiaˈmɑ fi ə, ˈmæf i ə

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Random House Webster's College Dictionary

Ma•fi•aˈmɑ fi ə, ˈmæf i ə(n.)

  1. a secret organization allegedly engaged in criminal activities in the U.S., Italy, and elsewhere.

    Category: Western History

  2. (in Sicily) (l.c.) a spirit of hostility to the law. a 19th-century secret society that acted in this spirit.

    Category: Western History

  3. (l.c.) any influential clique.

    Category: Western History

Origin of Mafia:

1870–75; < It < Sicilian: orig., elegance, bravura, courage (orig. obscure)

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Mafia, Maffia, Cosa Nostra(noun)

    a crime syndicate in the United States; organized in families; believed to have important relations to the Sicilian Mafia

  2. Mafia, Maffia, Sicilian Mafia(noun)

    a secret terrorist group in Sicily; originally opposed tyranny but evolved into a criminal organization in the middle of the 19th century

  3. mafia, maffia(noun)

    any tightly knit group of trusted associates

Wiktionary

  1. Mafia(ProperNoun)

    An international criminal organization of Sicilian origin operating in Italy and the United States.

  2. Mafia(ProperNoun)

    Any organized crime syndicate operating internationally in high-level organized crime; .

    Somehow he managed to piss off the Russian Mafia.

  3. mafia(Noun)

    A crime syndicate

  4. mafia(Noun)

    A trusted group of associates of a political leader

  5. mafia(Noun)

    An in-group

  6. Origin: From mafia, from mafia, from مهجس.


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