Definition of "Maya"

Maya¹

/ˈmaɪə/

noun
plural Mayas or Maya
1. A member or descendant of various peoples:
  1. a flourishing Mesoamerican civilization that existed in and around Guatemala from the 3rd century to the 9th century.
  2. various Mesoamerican peoples that continued in competing civilizations from the 10th century onward until conquered by Spain
  3. various Mesoamerican peoples living in the Spanish Empire, and now parts of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras
  4. a variety of Mesoamerican peoples with farming from around 1000 BC onward, who developed a large civilization from the 3rd century onward
proper noun
1. The Yucatec Maya language.
2. Any of the other various Mayan languages, such as Quiché, Mam and Tzotzil.

Maya²

/ˈmaɪə/

proper noun
1. A female given name from Hebrew of modern usage.
  Quotations
  When her little friends asked her what her name was, her father replied that it was Conchita - his diminutive for Maria de la Concepción. "Con-what?" they would ask again, aware, apparently, that con in French is a fool, an idiot. So her parents started calling her Maria, which from the little girl's lips soon began to sound like Maya. "Maya!" exclaimed her father. "It's perfect. It means the greatest illusion on earth." So Maya it was from then on - Maya Walter.
  1988, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Picasso, Creator and Destroyer, Simon and Schuster, page 240

Maya³

/ˈmaɪə/

proper noun
1. In Sanskrit, illusion; God's physical and metaphysical creation (literally, "not this").
2. A female given name from Sanskrit used in India.
  Quotations
  Eventually, Pran and Savita decided by correspondence on Maya. Its two simple syllables meant, among other things: the goddess Lakshmi, illusion, fascination, art, the goddess Durga, kindness, and the name of the mother of Buddha. It also meant: ignorance, delusion, fraud, guile, and hypocrisy; but no one who named their daughter Maya ever paid any attention to those pejorative possibilities.- - - 'Why ever not, Ma?' said Meenakshi.'It's a very Bengali name, a very nice name.'
  1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Phoenix House, page 891

Maya⁴

/ˈmaɪə/

proper noun
1. (Buddhism) The mother of Gautama Buddha.