How to Use ma in a Sentence

ma

noun
  • Her ma and pa both said she can't go.
  • I told my ma that on Mother's Day we'd be dining at the town's toniest restaurant.
  • These were the sons of ma-and-pa grocery stores who had closed when Wal-Mart took over.
    — Sarah Jones, The New Republic, 13 Apr. 2018
  • In one of the funniest, squirmy bits, Zhang and his ma are consigned to a dark basement.
    — Andrea Simakis, cleveland.com, 20 Oct. 2017
  • In Japanese, the term ma translates roughly as a gap, a space, a pause.
    — Toby Skinner, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 June 2019
  • For hey-ma-look-at-me lips, layer it on top of a matte red lipstick to get a super-lush look.
    — Meirav Devash, Allure, 19 Sep. 2017
  • For ma, place pillowcase inside dress, open side down; fill with hay.
    — Woman's Day Staff, Woman's Day, 9 Sep. 2019
  • The number of poisonings and deaths from ma huang plummeted after the ban.
    — Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 25 July 2017
  • This lip color is my ride or die, my real one, my holy grail of cheap ma (and their non-liquid formula is bomb too, FYI).
    — Kelsey Stiegman, Seventeen, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Can anyone—your sister, your best friend, your ma—ever know the totality of you?
    — Chicago Reader, 14 Feb. 2018
  • P oll c onduc t ed W edn es d a y and T hu r s d a y; all an s w e r s h av e a ma r gin o f er r or o f +/– 4 .
    — Shaffer Grubb, sandiegouniontribune.com, 20 May 2017
  • The Atlanta architect also has three modern homes in the Atlanta area on the upcoming MA!
    — Linda Jerkins, ajc, 3 June 2017
  • Square takes a predictable cut of every transaction its ma-and-pa merchant customers make.
    — Aaron Pressman, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Come for a lesson on the importance of male friendship and stay for Will Ferrell demanding ma’s meatloaf.
    — Mahita Gajanan, Time, 17 Jan. 2018
  • To say that the city of Ashburn has a love for peanuts would be stating the obvious; nothing says love quite like a 20-foot-tall peanut monument towering over a ma ...
    — Jeremy Johnson, ajc, 30 Oct. 2017
  • Outsiders think of Sichuan food as spicy hot, or la, but the more prevalent and unique characteristic of the cuisine is ma, the citrus tingle of Sichuan pepper.
    — Ben Huberman, Longreads, 12 Jan. 2018
  • Plenty of ma la seasoning or shoyu, or a plunge in the deep-fryer give it some pizazz, but on its own, most tofu feels just a little too much like diet food for me.
    — Kat Craddock, Saveur, 8 Sep. 2017
  • Sony also notes that charging is limited to a paltry 500 mA, which means that fast charging is completely out of the question.
    — Dan Seifert, The Verge, 24 July 2018
  • Bowling is a realtime embodiment of Newton’s Second Law, known as F=ma to those of the science ilk.
    — San Antonio Express-News, 25 Mar. 2018
  • Bama is the corporate behemoth out to destroy your college football ma-and-pa shops.
    — Lorenzo Arguello, SI.com, 31 Oct. 2017
  • There are models of the chupacabra, a beast rumored to drain livestock of their blood, and the yara-ma-yha-who, which originated in the oral traditions of Australia and boasts blood suckers on its fingers and toes.
    — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Some vehicles will show as little as 10 mA residual drain.
    — Mike Allen, Popular Mechanics, 26 Jan. 2017
  • The series has a TV-MA rating and debuted with graphic content warnings on two of its most intense episodes; an additional warning was put on the first episode.
    — Yvonne Villarreal, latimes.com, 5 May 2017
  • Currently the episodes that carry graphic content are identified as such and the series overall carries a TV-MA rating.
    — Brian Porreca, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 May 2017
  • Currently the episodes that carry graphic content are identified as such and the series overall carries a TV-MA rating.
    — Brian Porreca, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 May 2017
  • Currently the episodes that carry graphic content are identified as such and the series overall carries a TV-MA rating.
    — Emma Dibdin, Seventeen, 1 May 2017
  • The house special spicy pot is one of those chaotic, throw everything in the pot creations, with ingredients like glass noodles, bean curd, lotus root, quail eggs and thick slabs of spam, all swimming in soupy ma la fire.
    — Lauren Saria, azcentral, 21 June 2019
  • Netflix gave it a TV-MA rating which is for mature audiences and added content warnings given the graphic depictions of rape and suicide.
    — Lisa Respers France, CNN, 8 May 2017
  • While that dish provides a good touchstone, and shares some ingredients, suan cai yu differs by adding a sour component to the numbing tingle and spiciness, the respective ma and la signature of Sichuan cuisine.
    — Jim Thurman, Los Angeles Magazine, 24 May 2018
  • As A-ma said, every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another.
    — Chelsea Cain, New York Times, 26 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ma.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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