Mafia
English
Alternative forms
- Maffia (less common)
Etymology
From Italian mafia. Perhaps from Italian mafia (“spirit of hostility to the law”) or from Sicilian mafiusu (“boldness, bravado”). See the Wikipedia article for more discussion of the origin of the word.
Proper noun
the Mafia
- The Mob: any particular mafia, mentioned uniquely within the discussion's established or implicit context, usually and especially the Sicilian-Italian–Italian-American one (especially in American English) but occasionally others (e.g., the Russian one, the Japanese one).
- Synonym: Mob
- The international criminal organization of Sicilian origin operating in Italy and the United States.
- Synonym: Cosa Nostra
- Any other specific organized crime syndicate operating internationally in high-level organized crime; often with a modifying adjective, such as a nationality.
- Somehow he managed to upset the Russian Mafia.
Mafia
- A party game modelling a conflict between an informed minority (the mafia) and an uninformed majority (the innocents). Each player is secretly assigned a role within one of these teams, and the innocents attempt to identify the mafia members before they are all "murdered".
Derived terms
Translations
international criminal organisation of Sicilian origin
organized criminal syndicate
German
Alternative forms
- Maffia (superseded)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmafi̯a/
Audio (file)
Declension
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