Also spelled maister and marster

US /ˈmas.tə/ UK /ˈmɑːs.tə/
noun verb Freq #631

Meanings

  1. 1
    verb

    To learn or become very skilled at something.

    She mastered French in less than two years.

  2. 2
    noun

    A person who is highly skilled or expert at something.

    Mark Twain was a master of storytelling.

  3. 3
    noun

    A person who has control or power over others.

    In the past, slaves had to obey their master.

  4. 4
    verb

    To gain control over or overcome something.

    He slowly mastered his fear of flying.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
2 noun · a person who is highly... expertmaestroace
4 verb · to gain control over or... dominate
Word family
Forms maister’smasteredmasterhoodmasteringmasterlessmasters
Derived forms archmasterbaggagemasterballetmasterbandmasterbargemasterbarmasterbattlemasterbeachmasterbeastmasterbeefmasterbeemasterbemaster

Common collocations

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *meǵh₂-der.? Proto-Indo-European *meh₂-der.? Proto-Italic *magisteros Latin magister, magistrum Old French maistrebor. ▲ Latin magisterder. Old English mǣġester Middle English maister English master From Middle English maister, mayster, meister (noun) and maistren (verb), from Old English mǣster, mæġster, mæġester, mæġister, magister (“master”), from Latin magister (“chief, teacher, leader”), from Old Latin magester, from Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (as in magnus (“great”), also cognate of English much and mickle) + -ester/-ister (compare minister (“servant”)…

View etymology graph ->

Topics

markdown

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