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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mana.

Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.

4 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɑː.nə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmæ-/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑ.nə/General-American/ˈmæ-/General-American
  1. Power, prestige; specifically, a form of supernatural energy in Polynesian religion that inheres in things or people.

    uncountable · usually
  2. Magical energy.

    uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Māori mana, ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana. The use of "mana" for "magical energy" in role-playing games originated from Larry Niven, when he wrote the short story, "Not Long Before the End", in 1969. It was later popularised by his The Magic Goes Away setting.

noun/ˈmɑː.nə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmæ-/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑ.nə/General-American/ˈmæ-/General-American
  1. Alternative form of mina (“ancient unit of weight or currency”).

    alt-of · alternative
noun/ˈmɑː.nə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmæ-/Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɑ.nə/General-American/ˈmæ-/General-American
  1. Alternative spelling of manna.

    alt-of · alternative · uncountable
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.