mafia

See Mafia. The sense "entity which attempts to control a specified arena" makes an analogy to crime-syndicate mafias' attempts to control certain kinds of business in the regions in which they exist.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑfi.ə/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmæfi.ə/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

mafia (plural mafias)

1. A hierarchically structured secret organisation engaged in illegal activities like distribution of narcotics, gambling and extortion.
2. A crime syndicate.
3. A trusted group of associates, as of a political leader.
4. (in compound terms such as "moral mafia") An entity which attempts to control a specified arena.
   • 1994, Francis Wheen, Lord Gnome's Literary Companion (page 161)

     Worse, it confirms what one always suspected about the 1930s literary mafia, with their graceless posing and relentless self-obsession — what terrible , terrible bores they were.

   • 2000, Senator Robert Torricelli, ‎Andrew Carroll, In Our Own Words: Extraordinary Speeches of the American Century (page 432)

     Since the victory of gadgetry is "inevitable," you might as well come along quietly and let us smother you in speed and convenience, says the digital mafia.

   • 2019, Anne Holt, In Dust and Ashes (page 83)

     I can scarcely leave the apartment without being engulfed by journalists, not to mention the fucking left-wing activists and the multicultural mafia that assailed me with spitting and verbal abuse the last time I ventured out […]

Borrowed from English mafia.

mafia c (singular definite mafiaen, plural indefinite mafiaer)

1. A mafia.

• mafiafamilie

From Italian mafia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɑfiɑ/, [ˈmɑfiɑ]
• Rhymes: -ɑfiɑ
• Syllabification^(key): ma‧fi‧a

mafia

1. mafia

• IPA^(key): /ma.fja/

• Audio

  (file)

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. the Mafia

• “mafia”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Italian mafia.

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. Mafia (Italian Mafia)
2. Mafia (any criminal organisation)

• (criminal organisation): cartel

• mafioso

Borrowed from Sicilian, of uncertain origin.[1] Most likely from Arabic مَهْيَاص‎ (mahyāṣ, “cocky, bragger”)[2], though French mafler (“to devour, gluttonize”) is considered another possible source.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fja/
• Rhymes: -afja
• Hyphenation: mà‧fia

mafia f (plural mafie)

1. the Mafia (International organized crime organization)
2. mafia (Individual branch)
3. arrogance

• mafioso
• mafiologo
• mafiosità

• → German: Mafia
• → Turkish: mafya
• → Maltese: mafja
• → Romanian: mafie
• → Russian: ма́фия (máfija)
• → Spanish: mafia

• (non-standard since 1987) maffia

mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer, definite plural mafiaene)

1. mafia, Mafia

• (non-standard since 1987) maffia

mafia m (definite singular mafiaen, indefinite plural mafiaer or mafiaar, definite plural mafiaene or mafiaane)

1. mafia, Mafia

Borrowed from Italian mafia, from Sicilian.

• IPA^(key): /ˈma.fja/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -afja
• Syllabification: ma‧fia

mafia f

1. mafia (crime syndicate)

   Synonym: ośmiornica

2. mafia (trusted group of associates, as of a political leader)

• mafia in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• mafia in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Italian mafia.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmafja/ [ˈma.fja]
• Rhymes: -afja
• Syllabification: ma‧fia

mafia f (plural mafias)

1. Mafia (Italian Mafia)
2. Mafia (any criminal organization)

   Synonym: cartel

• antimafia
• mafioso

• “mafia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014