Meanings
plural engmas
- countableThe velar nasal consonant found in such words as song or wink.
The velar nasal (engma) is transcribed as /ng/.
1985, James Joseph Errington, Language and Social Change in Java: Linguistic Reflexes of Modernization in a Traditional Royal Polity - countableThe symbol ŋ, used to represent that nasal velar consonant in IPA.
We kept some of the foreign alphabet symbols such as the accented and umlauted vowels and Greek letters and used the rest of the space for more esoteric linguistic symbols such as "barred-l," and "engma."
1989, Elizabeth A. Edwards, “A Computer Column for All Seasons”, in Margaret S. Boone, editor, Practicing Anthropology, volume 11, number 2
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
Perhaps a blend of eng + agma.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
engma. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/engma
“engma.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/engma. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “engma,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/engma.
Source: engma on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.