matra

M3A1T1R1A1

noun

In Indian music, the smallest rhythmic unit of a tala.

OriginSanskrit मात्रा →
UncommonScrabble 7
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Meanings

nounmatra (plural matras)

plural matras

  1. entertainmentIn Indian music, the smallest rhythmic unit of a tala.
  2. In Indian poetics and linguistics, a measure of the length of a syllable; equivalent to mora.
  3. The characteristic horizontal line drawn above characters in some Indic scripts.
  4. An intra-syllabic vowel symbol in Indic scripts.

Origin

  1. Sanskritमात्रा“measure, small quantity”
  2. Englishmatra

Borrowed from Sanskrit मात्रा (mātrā, “measure, small quantity”).

More words from Sanskrit

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bengali মাত্রা
  • মাত্রা (matra)horizontal line in many Indic scripts
Hindi मात्रा, मात्रा
  • मात्रा (mātrā)vowel symbol
  • मात्रा (mātrā)horizontal line in many Indic scripts
  • शिरोरेखा (śirorekhā)horizontal line in many Indic scripts
Russian ма́тра, ма́тра
  • ма́тра (mátra)vowel symbol
  • ма́тра (mátra)horizontal line in many Indic scripts

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

MartaTamarMaratTamraMatartramaAtmar
Cite this entry
APA

matra. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matra

MLA

“matra.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matra. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “matra,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/matra.

Source: matra on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.