Mon

Pluralmons, mon, Mons, Mon, MONs

1. 1
   nounabbreviation

   Abbreviation of Monday.

   The report is due Mon, so finish it over the weekend.

   Flights leave every Mon and Thursday from the small airport.

   Note

   A calendar shorthand that stands in for the weekday wherever space is tight. It can carry the plain noun, as in every Mon and Thursday. It can also carry the informal North American adverb, where Monday alone means "on Monday": the report is due Mon. In running text it is easy to misread as the name of the Myanmar people, so the full word is clearer in prose.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A member of a people living chiefly in the Mon State of Myanmar (also called Burma) and in Thailand.

   Her grandmother was a Mon from a coastal town in southern Myanmar.

   The Mon have preserved their own script and Buddhist traditions for centuries.

   Note

   The English name arrives through Burmese, from mwan, the Burmese word for this people. Individuals take an ordinary plural (two Mons from the coast). With the article, the Mon names the people as a whole. The same Burmese source stands behind the name of their language, so the two words always travel together.

3. 3
   proper noun

   The Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon people of Myanmar and Thailand.

   Many older villagers still pray and tell stories in Mon.

   Linguists classify Mon alongside Khmer in the Austroasiatic family.

   Note

   As the name of a language it takes no article and no plural: villagers speak Mon or pray in Mon. A Mon, or the Mons, are speakers themselves, as with the people. Its place in the Austroasiatic family puts it alongside Khmer, a useful anchor for readers placing it among the languages of the region.

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