maya

In Hinduism, Buddhism, and certain other East Asian religions, the transitory, manifold appearance of the sensible world, which obscures the undifferentiated spiritual reality from which it originates; the illusory appearance of the sensible world.

The power of a god or demon to transform a concept into an element of the sensible world.

In Hindu mythology: Illusion or deceptive appearance.

[capitalized] Such appearance personified as a female who acts a part in the production of the universe, and is considered to have only an illusory existence.

Of or pertaining to the Mayas, an aboriginal tribe of Yucatan, distinguished for their civilization and as the possessors of an alphabet and a literature when America was discovered: as, the Maya alphabet; the Maya records.

the Indian people occupying the area of Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, and Yucatan, together with a part of Guatemala and a part of Salvador. The Maya peoples are dark, short, and brachycephalic, and at the time of the discovery had attained a higher grade of culture than any other American people. They cultivated a variety of crops, were expert in the manufacture and dyeing of cotton fabrics, used cacao as a medium of exchange, and were workers of gold, silver, and copper. Their architecture comprised elaborately carved temples and palaces, and they possessed a superior calendar, and a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, with records said to go back to about 700 a. d.

the language of the Mayas.

a member of an American Indian people of Yucatan and Belize and Guatemala who had a culture (which reached its peak between AD 300 and 900) characterized by outstanding architecture and pottery and astronomy

a family of American Indian languages spoken by Maya