/mah"ree/ , n. , pl. Maris , ( esp. collectively ) Mari for 1.
1. a member of a Uralic people living in scattered communities north of Cheboksary and Kazan in European Russia, mainly in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
2. the Finnic language of the Mari. Also called Cheremis, Cheremiss .
[ mári (not declined) marij Mari, man ]