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# mayan

«mayan» in Mova's school dictionary: **To do with the Maya, the people of Central America…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (Mayan); noun (a Mayan, Mayans)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To do with the Maya, the people of Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras) whose ancient civilisation built stone cities and pyramids. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#m1)

2) A Maya person; also the Mayan languages, which millions of people still speak today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In history lessons «the ancient Maya» or «Mayan civilisation» (about 2000 BC to AD 1500 and later) is a common topic: pyramids such as Chichén Itzá, a writing system of glyphs, a calendar, maths with zero, and chocolate drinks made from cacao. In maths the Mayan number system uses dots (1), bars (5) and a shell for zero, and counts in twenties. Phrases: «Mayan calendar», «Mayan pyramid», «Mayan numbers», «Mayan gods».

### examples

- The Mayan pyramid had steep steps up to a temple. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x1)
- We wrote our ages in Mayan numbers using dots and bars. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x2)
- Mayan people still live in Guatemala and speak Mayan languages. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x3)
- The Mayan calendar was very accurate. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x4)
- Ancient Mayan farmers grew maize, beans and squash. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x5)
- A shell stood for zero in Mayan maths. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x6)
- Some people claimed the Mayan calendar said the world would end, but it did not say that. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/#x7)

### note

Capital letter: Mayan, Maya. Experts often say «Maya» for the people and the ancient civilisation and «Mayan» for the languages, but both are common. Myth: the Mayan calendar did not predict the end of the world; a long cycle simply started again. Do not confuse with «Aztec» or «Inca», other American civilisations. In Mayan numbers a bar = 5, a dot = 1, and place values go up in twenties.

### In the corpora

- [Millions of Maya people still live in the same lands today and speak Mayan languages; the Maya did not disappear.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/18-the-maya/8/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «mayan» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mayan/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.