sema

¹ American  

[se-mah, say-mah] / sɛˈmɑ, ˈseɪ mɑ /

noun

1. Islam. a ritual in the Sufi tradition, combining the recitation of poetry, chanting of passages from the Quran, music, vocal and instrumental music, and dancing by whirling dervishes.

---

sema ² American  

[say-mah] / ˈseɪ mɑ /

noun

1. in Anishinaabe culture, tobacco, viewed as a sacred plant and used in prayer and offerings to the Creator.

---

sema ³ American  

[see-muh] / ˈsi mə /

noun

• semas
  plural

1. Linguistics. (in semiotics) a unit of meaning; sememe.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• semas
  plural

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sema

This was the sense I had at the sema I attended at the cultural center, and a couple of my fellow audience members agreed with that assessment.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2019

Inspired, other sects started to spread his dance, called the sema, throughout the Ottoman Empire.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2019

During this period, Turkish dervishes worked to spread the dance outside their country to preserve the pure sema traditions.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2019

Elifnaz Caliskan, a Turkish citizen in graduate school at University of Maryland, has attended many sema ceremonies in Konya and Istanbul.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2019

With much emotion he replied, "Inshullah tukodee jenb il Messiah fe melakoot is sema!"

From The Women of the Arabs by Charles S. (Charles Seymour) Robinson