"masa" meaning in English

See masa in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa) or 政 (masa), an abbreviation of 柾紙 (masagami) or 政紙 (masagami). Etymology templates: {{bor+|en|ja|柾|tr=masa}} Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa) Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} masa (uncountable)
  1. (art) A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting. Tags: uncountable Synonyms: masa paper
    Sense id: en-masa-en-noun-60oeSggl Categories (other): Art Topics: art, arts
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

Forms: masas [plural]
Etymology: From Spanish masa (“dough”). Doublet of mass. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|es|masa||dough}} Spanish masa (“dough”), {{doublet|en|mass}} Doublet of mass Head templates: {{en-noun|-|s}} masa (usually uncountable, plural masas)
  1. (US) Maize dough made from freshly prepared hominy, used for making tortillas, tamales, etc. Tags: US, uncountable, usually
    Sense id: en-masa-en-noun-8oSQDhX7 Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Maize (food) Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 56 Disambiguation of Maize (food): 14 86
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "柾",
        "tr": "masa"
      },
      "expansion": "Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa)",
      "name": "bor+"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa) or 政 (masa), an abbreviation of 柾紙 (masagami) or 政紙 (masagami).",
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting."
      ],
      "id": "en-masa-en-noun-60oeSggl",
      "links": [
        [
          "art",
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        ],
        [
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        ],
        [
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          "drawing"
        ],
        [
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          "painting"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(art) A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "masa paper"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "art",
        "arts"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "masa"
}

{
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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "es",
        "3": "masa",
        "4": "",
        "5": "dough"
      },
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      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "mass"
      },
      "expansion": "Doublet of mass",
      "name": "doublet"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Spanish masa (“dough”). Doublet of mass.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "masas",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
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    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
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        },
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              61,
              65
            ],
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              126,
              130
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          ],
          "ref": "2023 July 7, Rick A. Martínez, quoting Fermín Núñez, “For the Best Tortillas (and Gorditas and Tetelas), You Need Fresh Masa”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The chef Fermín Núñez of Suerte, in Austin, Texas, considers masa “the canvas of what Mexican cooking is all about.” “Without masa,” he said, “there’s no tortillas, and, without tortillas, there’s no tacos!”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Maize dough made from freshly prepared hominy, used for making tortillas, tamales, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-masa-en-noun-8oSQDhX7",
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        [
          "Maize",
          "maize"
        ],
        [
          "dough",
          "dough"
        ],
        [
          "hominy",
          "hominy"
        ],
        [
          "tortilla",
          "tortilla"
        ],
        [
          "tamale",
          "tamale"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US) Maize dough made from freshly prepared hominy, used for making tortillas, tamales, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "masa"
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms borrowed from Japanese",
    "English terms borrowed from Spanish",
    "English terms derived from Japanese",
    "English terms derived from Spanish",
    "English uncountable nouns",
    "Pages with 33 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
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      "name": "bor+"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese 柾 (masa) or 政 (masa), an abbreviation of 柾紙 (masagami) or 政紙 (masagami).",
  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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    {
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      ],
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        "A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting."
      ],
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          "art",
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        ],
        [
          "paper",
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        ],
        [
          "drawing",
          "drawing"
        ],
        [
          "painting",
          "painting"
        ]
      ],
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        "(art) A strong form of paper, smooth on one side and lightly textured on the other, used for drawing and painting."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "masa paper"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "art",
        "arts"
      ]
    }
  ],
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}

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    "English uncountable nouns",
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      "name": "bor"
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      ]
    }
  ],
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          "ref": "2023 July 7, Rick A. Martínez, quoting Fermín Núñez, “For the Best Tortillas (and Gorditas and Tetelas), You Need Fresh Masa”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The chef Fermín Núñez of Suerte, in Austin, Texas, considers masa “the canvas of what Mexican cooking is all about.” “Without masa,” he said, “there’s no tortillas, and, without tortillas, there’s no tacos!”",
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        }
      ],
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        "Maize dough made from freshly prepared hominy, used for making tortillas, tamales, etc."
      ],
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          "maize"
        ],
        [
          "dough",
          "dough"
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        ],
        [
          "tortilla",
          "tortilla"
        ],
        [
          "tamale",
          "tamale"
        ]
      ],
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        "(US) Maize dough made from freshly prepared hominy, used for making tortillas, tamales, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
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}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.