minah

M3I1N1A1H4
/ˈmaɪnə/Singapore/mɪˈna/

noun

A Malay girl.

Similar
mynamynahminamyna birdmynah bird
Scrabble 10

Meanings

minah1

nounminah (plural minahs)

plural minahs

  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of myna.

minah2

nounminah (plural minahs)

plural minahs

  1. SingaporecolloquialderogatoryA Malay girl.

    Yati feels she is lucky to get - and hold - a factory job, though it has earned her the title of "Minah Karan".

    1987 August 26, Ning Juita, “Culture shock for Yati, the kampung girl”, in The Straits Times, page 16
    3 more examples

    Among the ah bengs and ah lians, the mats and the minahs, the young expats and the backpackers, he stood out like a dozen guys on a male-only dance floor singing Dancing Queen (I'll never forgive Blur for ruining my 21st birthday).

    2012 April 15, Neil Humphreys, “From Cool Dude to Sad Old Man”, in The New Paper, page 34

    “People thought I was a minah and that I would not make it but I did,” she says, using the colloquial term to describe rowdy Malay girls without drive or ambition.

    2015 October 4, Wong Kim Hoh, “At 17, she found herself with a broken home and nowhere to stay”, in The Straits Times, page B7

    Hirzi said of their significance: “People watched the Minahs for entertainment, but there was also a lot (more) to the videos... When we were vulnerable, the characters, especially the Minahs, picked us up.”

    2017 December 19, Audrey Leong, “YouTube duo makes curtain call”, in The New Paper, page 15

Minah3

proper noun

alternative Meena · alternative Mina

  1. A female given name from Arabic.

Synonyms & antonyms

nountropical Asian starlings

Similar
mynamynahminamyna birdmynah bird
Broader
Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

minah · noun

  1. Sanskritमदन
  2. Urduمینا
  3. Hindiमैना
  4. Englishminah

Borrowed from Hindi मैना (mainā)/Urdu مینا (mainā), from Sanskrit मदन (madana).

Full word history & related roots →

minah · noun

Derived from Malay name Aminah.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with minah

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

minah. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minah

MLA

“minah.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minah. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “minah,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/minah.

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