mami

Borrowed from Spanish mami.

mami (plural mamis)

1. (chiefly Latin America, Philippines) mommy, mother
2. (chiefly Latin America) attractive woman; momma
3. (chiefly Latin America) a term of affection for a woman

Borrowed from Tagalog mami, from Hokkien. Doublet of bakmi.

mami (uncountable)

1. (Philippines) A soup dish of wheat noodles or cellophane noodles mixed with meat of either pork, chicken, pork liver, beef brisket, and/or fresh or dried seafood such as shrimp or squid, and/or wonton dumplings, and vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, spring onion, etc.

   Synonym: pancit mami

   • 2003, Ma. Romina M. Gonzalez, Welostit and Other Stories, page 51:

     One brought two boxes of instant mami noodles.

   • 2008, Priscelina Patajo-Legasto, Philippine Studies: Have We Gone Beyond St. Louis?, page 369:

     When her awaited bus arrives, she passes up instant mami noodles for a chance to dip her hand in a box of old shoes.

   • 2013, Ed S. Teovisio, The 8 Streams of Confluent Learning to Personal Effectiveness, page 22:

     A new era came in the 90's when the Generation Y (Gen Y), born in the mid-70's to mid-80's, started trickling into the urban development craze with the booming of malls and instant products from instant mami to instant coffee to instant beauty.

• I'mma, Imam, Imma, imam, imma, maim

mami

1. mom
2. midwife

mami

1. inflection of mamar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): [ˈmamɪ]

mami f (indeclinable)

1. mom, mum

   Synonyms: matka, maminka

• Singular only. Usually only used in the vocative case.

• tati

• “mami”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “mami”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “mami”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2026

From English mommy.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑmi/, [ˈmɑ̝mi]
• Rhymes: -ɑmi
• Syllabification^(key): ma‧mi
• Hyphenation^(key): ma‧mi

mami (colloquial)

1. mom, mum

mami

1. plural of mamo

mami

1. Rōmaji transcription of まみ

mami

1. species of possum

• IPA^(key): /mami/

From French mamie.

mami

1. grandmother

   Synonym: granmer

From Marathi मामी (māmī).

mami

1. aunt, particularly maternal uncle's wife

   Synonym: matant

From English mammy.

mami

1. mother

• Rhymes: -ami
• Syllabification: ma‧mi

From mama + -i.

mami (not comparable, no derived adverb)

1. (Far Masovian, Mława, relational, possessive) synonym of mamin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

mami

1. third-person singular present of mamić

• Hieronim Łopaciński (1892), “mami”, in “Przyczynki do nowego słownika języka polskiego (słownik wyrazów ludowych z Lubelskiego i innych okolic Królestwa Polskiego)”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 276

• IPA^(key): /ma.ˈmi/, [ma.ˈmi]

mami

1. pomelo

mami (Cyrillic spelling мами)

1. inflection of mamiti:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmami/ [ˈma.mi]

• Audio (Costa Rica):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ami
• Syllabification: ma‧mi

mami f (plural mamis)

1. (childish, endearing, informal) mommy
2. (Central America, Philippines) mother
3. (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela) attractive woman; momma
4. (Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela) a term of affection for a woman
5. (Peru) a woman who runs a brothel; a madame
6. (Honduras, derogatory) a homosexual man

• “mami”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈmami/ [ˈmaː.mɪ]
• Rhymes: -ami
• Syllabification: ma‧mi

Borrowed from Hokkien, either:

• 肉麵 / 肉面 (mah-mī, “meat and noodles soup”, literally “meat and noodles”), according to Chan-Yap (1980). Compare Cebuano bam-i, Indonesian bakmi, Javanese ꦧꦏ꧀ꦩꦶ (bakmi), Dutch bami. See also Hokkien 牛肉麵 / 牛肉面 (gû-mah-mī, “beef noodles”).
• 馬麵 / 马面 (má mī, literally “Ma’s noodles”), noodles peddled by Ma Mon Luk (馬文祿 ／ 马文禄, Cantonese Yale: Máh Màhn-luhk; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Má Bûn Lo̍k) in his restaurant since the 1920s in Binondo, Manila.

Manuel (1948) also records an entry, providing the definitions and pronunciation of Hokkien 肉麵 / 肉面 (mah-mī, “meat and noodles soup”, literally “meat and noodles”), but misidentifies it as Cantonese.

mami (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜋᜒ)

1. mami (a soup dish of wheat noodles or cellophane noodles mixed with various meat and vegetables)

• bami

Borrowed from English mommy.

mami (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜋᜒ) (slang, endearing)

1. female friend

• “mami”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
• “mami”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018
• Chan-Yap, Gloria (1980), “Hokkien Chinese borrowings in Tagalog”, in Pacific Linguistics, volume B, number 71 (PDF), Canberra, A.C.T. 2600.: The Australian National University, page 138
• Manuel, E. Arsenio (1948), Chinese elements in the Tagalog language: with some indication of Chinese influence on other Philippine languages and cultures and an excursion into Austronesian linguistics, Manila: Filipiniana Publications, page 40

• imam

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

mami

1. type of yam