Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The minimal unit of metrical time in quantitative verse, equal to the short syllable.
- noun Linguistics A unit of phonological quantity based on both vowel quantity and the occurrence of consonants within a given syllable.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An old game still common in Italy, in which one of the players, after raising the right hand, suddenly lowers it, with one or more of the fingers extended, the other players trying to guess the number so extended.
- noun In ancient prosody, the unit of time, equivalent to the ordinary or normal short; the semeion or primary time. See
time . - noun In civillaw, any unjustifiable delay in the fulfilment of an obligation, for which the party delaying is responsible.
- noun A majestic leguminous tree, Dimorphandra (Mora) excelsa, abounding in Guiana and Trinidad.
- noun In Greek antiquity, one of the six main divisions of the army of Sparta, commanded by a polemarch.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rom. & Civil Law) Delay; esp., culpable delay; postponement.
- noun (Bot.) A leguminous tree of Guiana and Trinidad (
Dimorphandra excelsa ); also, its timber, used in shipbuilding and making furniture. - noun A game of guessing the number of fingers extended in a quick movement of the hand, -- much played by Italians of the lower classes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun botany A
genus of large South Americantrees . - noun Scottish law A
delay in bringing aclaim . - noun poetics A
unit used tomeasure lines andstanzas ofpoetry . - noun phonology A
unit of syllable weight used inphonology , by whichstress ,foot structure, ortiming ofutterance is determined in some languages (e.g.Japanese ).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Are we really using the term mora for writing systems now?
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I'm not a linguist, but I thought the term mora had more or less been restricted to the phonological elements of a spoken language, rather than to writing systems.
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Are we really using the term mora for writing systems now?
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But there is a grave periculum in mora [danger in delay].
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees - Nobel Lecture 1954
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Parliamente eba lefa ka mora nako e telele (6 months) Base ba fumani le mangolo a tswang maqwethweng.
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A mora is a unit of prosodic weight, so whether a coda consonant is moraic is a matter of whether it makes a syllable heavy.
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Luis Vásquez's rather didactic discussion of the meaning of the word mora in his letter to Alderrete illustrates the presidente's lack of basic knowledge regarding the customs that needed to be respected in order to operate with any measure of success in Indian country.
The Door of the Seas and Key to the Universe: Indian Politics and Imperial Rivalry in the Dari 2001
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The metrical unit in versification is a short syllable, technically called a mora (v).
New Latin Grammar Charles E. Bennett
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The two ran home, but the rhino came after them, so they again had to flee, pursued by him, until they came across a small tree called mora, of which antoh is afraid.
Through Central Borneo; an Account of Two Years' Travel in the Land of Head-Hunters Between the Years 1913 and 1917 Carl Lumholtz 1886
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The oboe were lineages into which every tribe was divided, and in each tribe there was another division containing all those of the same that were of military age, which being called the mora, was subdivided into troops and companies that were kept in perpetual discipline under the command of a magistrate called the polemarch.
The Commonwealth of Oceana James Harrington 1644
madmouth commented on the word mora
Mora: the vowel in a syllable and the consonant at the end. "Poo" has one mora, "put" has two.
Take a sip 4 or 5 morae, 3 syllables
Take a cup o' char 7 or 8 morae, 5 syllables
It's often said that a haiku is comprised of lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables in succession, though the original designation is 5-7-5 morae. The trouble is, in the English writing system, it's hard to feel out the number of morae in a word (often due to the MOP absconding with the codas). However, Japanese kana are organized precisely that way; each little bubble of cute represents one mora.
Given the moraic ambiguity of English, is there much use in crafting haiku?
June 23, 2009
chained_bear commented on the word mora
Usage on lotto.
December 17, 2009
ruzuzu commented on the word mora
"2. An old game still common in Italy, in which one of the players, after raising the right hand, suddenly lowers it, with one or more of the fingers extended, the other players trying to guess the number so extended." --Cent. Dict.
May 16, 2011
Prolagus commented on the word mora
That's actually called morra.
May 16, 2011
Jimmydiamond commented on the word mora
the mora of haiku
August 1, 2013
Jimmydiamond commented on the word mora
prosody set morae with elegant spartan , complete.
August 1, 2013