Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Hinduism A sacred verbal formula repeated in prayer, meditation, or incantation, such as an invocation of a god, a magic spell, or a syllable or portion of scripture containing mystical potentialities.
  • noun A commonly repeated word or phrase, especially in advocacy or for motivation.
  • noun A concept or fact that is mentioned repeatedly, especially in advocacy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Vedic hymn of praise and prayer; collectively, the matter of the Sanhita or first division of the Veda, as distinguished from the liturgical matter, called the brahmana.
  • noun A sacred text used as a charm or incantation by Brahmans and Yogis.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun India A prayer; an invocation; a religious formula; a charm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The hymn portions of the Vedas; any passage of these used as a prayer.
  • noun A phrase repeated to assist concentration during meditation, originally in Hinduism.
  • noun A slogan or phrase often repeated.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a commonly repeated word or phrase
  • noun (Sanskrit) literally a `sacred utterance' in Vedism; one of a collection of orally transmitted poetic hymns

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Sanskrit mantraḥ; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Sanskrit मन्त्र (mantra). In the sense of "hymn portion of the Vedas" in English since 1808; in the sense of "word or phrase used in meditation" since 1956.

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Examples

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  • Art, name no tub time. Emit but one mantra.

    November 23, 2009