Mafia definition
The Russian mafia.
The digital mafia.
The literary mafia.
Somehow he managed to upset the Russian Mafia.
Other Word Forms
Noun
Origin of mafia
- Italian back-formation from mafiuso, mafioso Mafioso Mafioso
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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From Wiktionary
- See Mafia. The sense "entity which attempts to control a specified arena" makes an analogy to crime-syndicate mafias' attempts to control certain kinds of business in the regions in which they exist.
From Wiktionary