mafia
/ˈmɑfi.ə/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
Meaning
name
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).
name
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).
name
A social deduction 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".
noun
A hierarchically structured secret organisation engaged in illegal activities like distribution of narcotics, gambling and extortion.
noun
noun
A trusted group of associates, as of a political leader.
Example Sentences
- "Somehow he managed to upset the Russian Mafia."
- "moral mafia"
- "Worse, it confirms what one always suspected about the 1930s literary mafia, with their graceless posing and relentless self-obsession — what terrible , terrible bores they were."
- "Since the victory of gadgetry is "inevitable," you might as well come along quietly and let us smother you in speed and convenience, says the digital mafia."
- "I can scarcely leave the apartment without being engulfed by journalists, not to mention the fucking left-wing activists and the multicultural mafia that assailed me with spitting and verbal abuse the last time I ventured out […]"
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɑfi.ə/
- British English: /ˈmæfi.ə/