Mecca

• Makkah, Makkah al-Mukarramah

Borrowed from Arabic مَكَّة‎ (makka, “Mecca”).

• Rhymes: -ɛkə

Mecca

1. A city in Saudi Arabia, the holiest place in Islam, location of the sacred Ka'ba, and to which Muslims are required to make a hajj at least once in their lifetime.

• Meccan

Mecca (plural Meccas)

1. (figuratively) Any place considered to be a very important place to visit by people with a particular interest.
   • 1826, The Lancet, “Sketches of the Medical Schools of Scotland”, volume 11, page 254:

     It was consequently the “Mecca,” the “Delphic Oracle,” the “Vale of Egeria,” to which all studious pilgrims should resort to drink of the pure springs of knowledge; […]

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:

     By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.

   • 1991, The Economist, The Economist Newspaper Ltd.

     On the other side of the Atlantic, stores in Paris's chic Avenue Montaigne, a mecca for Japanese tourists, said that sales to foreigners had fallen sharply.

   • 1997, John Romano, Muscle Meals, page 14.

     Living in Venice, California and training at the Mecca of bodybuilding, Gold's Gym, I've seen some of the world's most dedicated and hard-training athletes.

   • 2014, Rick Steves, Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2015: The Travel Skills Handbook, Avalon Travel, →ISBN, 705:

     I say how much I like the shabby lounge atmosphere of a ruin pub, and Laura declares that this one, Szimpla Kert (which means “Simple Garden”), is the mecca of ruin pubs.

• mecca

Mecca f

1. Obsolete spelling of Meca