Link Centre Dictionary

Mutawa

mu·tawa

UK/mʊˈtɑːwə/ US/muːˈtɑːwə/ uncommon

noun

1.

religious police in Saudi Arabia whose duty is to ensure strict adherence to established codes of conduct; offenders may be detained indefinitely; foreigners are not excluded

Synonyms

Origin

From the Arabic مُطَوَّع (muṭawwaʕ, “compliance officer, pious volunteer”), from طَوَّعَ (ṭawwaʕa, “to subjugate”).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.