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Added 10 October 2026

amah

/ˈɑː.mə/ noun

Latin root: amma Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about amah at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.
A female domestic.

Origin

From Portuguese ama (“female nurse”), from Medieval Latin amma (“wet nurse, amma”), perhaps an alteration of Latin mamma, of imitative origin, or from Ancient Greek.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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