almah

• alma
• almeh

Ultimately from Arabic عَالِمَة‎ (ʿālima, “singer”), originally a feminine adjective meaning ‘learned, knowledgeable’, from عَلِمَ‎ (ʿalima, “to know”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.mə/

almah (plural almahs or almah)

1. An Egyptian singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment; a dancing-girl, a prostitute. [from 18th c.]
   • 1998, Catherine Gillivray, translating Hélène Cixous, Firstdays of the Year, Minnesota 1998, p. 157:

     Nostalgia is almah, the Arab dancing girl. She tells me stories of the drowned, the deadest of this world's dead.

• Halma, Hamal, Mahal, amlah, halma, hamal, mahal