mantra
Americannoun
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Hinduism. a word or formula, as from the Veda, chanted or sung as an incantation or prayer.
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an often repeated word, formula, or phrase, often a truism.
If I hear the “less is more” mantra one more time, I'll scream.
noun
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Hinduism any of those parts of the Vedic literature which consist of the metrical psalms of praise
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Hinduism Buddhism any sacred word or syllable used as an object of concentration and embodying some aspect of spiritual power
Other Word Forms
- mantric adjective
Etymology
Origin of mantra
Borrowed into English from Sanskrit around 1800–10
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“It’s playing on that sort of mantra thing, where it’s just this one thing going over and over, going round and round,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times
"We will take all the data and see what works. Everything that works well will proceed," he said -- a personal mantra that would not appear out of place in Silicon Valley.
From Barron's
It shattered the Windsor mantra of “never complain, never explain,” stripping back the mystique of monarchy, revealing a somewhat dysfunctional family trapped inside an institution it struggles to manage.
Staying true to this mantra, within six months of the co founder's £100m windfall they went back to the public for yet another EFP raise.
From BBC
Ahead of the speeches, a choir sang as attendees photographed a large panel emblazoned with one of Jackson's mantras "keep hope alive."
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
