Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

Mari

[mah-ree]
noun, plural Ma·ris, (especially collectively) Ma·ri for 1.
  1. a member of a Uralic people living in scattered communities north of Cheboksary and Kazan in European Russia, mainly in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
  2. the Finnic language of the Mari.
Show More

Origin of Mari

< Russian mári (not declined) < Mari marij Mari, man
Also called Cheremis, Cheremiss.

Cheremis

or Cher·e·miss

[cher-uh-mis, -mees, cher-uh-mis, -mees]
noun, plural Cher·e·mis·es, (especially collectively) Cher·e·mis.
  1. Mari.
Show More

Origin of Cheremis

< Russian cheremís, earlier cheremísin, Old Russian (plural) chermisy, probably < Chuvash śarmîs, śarmîś Mari
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for cheremiss

Historical Examples

  • (1883–85); works of Smirnov on the Mordva, Cheremiss, etc., Fr.

    The Races of Man

    Joseph Deniker

  • We hear of a forest-god among the Finns, Lapps and Cheremiss.

British Dictionary definitions for cheremiss

Cheremiss

Cheremis

noun
  1. plural -miss or -mis a member of an Ugrian people of the Volga region, esp of the Mari El Republic
  2. Also called: Mari the language of this people, belonging to the Finno-Ugric family
Show More

Mari

noun plural Mari or Maris
  1. another name for Cheremiss
Show More
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012