# matha

Pronunciation: say "MUT-uh" /ˈmʌtə/

## Noun

1. In Hinduism and Jainism, a monastery or similar religious institution, usually organized more formally and hierarchically than an ashram.
   - Simple: A Hindu or Jain religious home where monks live and study together under one leader.
   - _The guru who leads the matha is chosen from among its most senior monks._
   - _Many mathas maintain libraries of palm-leaf manuscripts going back centuries._
2. A person's head. *(dialectal, New York City)*
   - Simple: The top part of a person's body, where the face and brain are.
   - _She bumped her matha on the low doorframe and winced._
   - _He clutched his matha after the long, exhausting shift._

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — This word comes from Sanskrit मठ (maṭha).
**Meaning 2** — This word was borrowed from Bengali মাথা (matha).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/matha (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).