Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Madonna |
MadonnaNoun1. The mother of Jesus; Christians refer to her as the Virgin Mary; she is especially honored by Roman Catholics. 2. United States pop singer and sex symbol during the 1980s (born in 1958). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
"Madonna" is a name that signifies or is derived from: "she is my lady". |
Date "Madonna" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1600. (references) |
Etymology: Madonna \Ma*don"na\, noun. [Italian madonna my lady. See Dame, Donna, and compare to Madame, Monkey.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Madonna (Italian, my lady.) Specially applied to representations of the Virgin Mary. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Madonna was an early Italian (medieval) word for a noble or otherwise important woman (it survived only in the previous sense), and is widely used in art, especially by Renaissance painters (see Mona Lisa.)See also: Mary, the mother of Jesus
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Madonna (art)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
See:
- Madonna, the pop music singer
- Mary, the mother of Jesus
- Madonna in Italian Renaissance art
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Madonna (disambiguation)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Madonna is the stage name used by Madonna Ciccone, a pop singer considered by many to be the queen of popular music. She has had a long career that has been marked by success and controversy.
Biography
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. Raised in a strict Catholic family, her mother died from cancer when Madonna was just a child. She took classes in piano and ballet, and at school was an active participant in a variety of artistic activities. She attended the University of Michigan for two years but quit and went to New York and lived in Corona, Queens in 1978, where she pursued dance and acting professionally. She appeared in a short film called A Certain Sacrifice and joined several punk-pop bands such as Breakfast Club. She eventually penned a number of songs that brought her local fame in gay dance clubs such as Danceteria.
Madonna scored her first recording deal while sitting on the corner of the bed of an ailing music executive. Her first single "Everybody" was released without her photo on the jacket. This led many listeners to believe that she was, in fact, black. Thankfully, because of the advent of MTV, her label was able to aggressively market Madonna's image. A playful and sexy combination of punk and pop culture, Madonna became a quick fixture on the network. Her bleached blonde hair (with black roots), sexy lace gloves, lingerie on the outside and "Boy Toy" belt buckle were soon all the rage in popular fashion.
In 1983 her self-titled debut album was released, and the first hit "Holiday" topped the charts around the world. Other hit singles included "Borderline", "Burning Up", "Lucky Star", and "Everybody". The album was a smash hit, and catapulted Madonna into instant stardom.
In 1984 she followed her debut with Like a Virgin. The album's provocative subject matter (especially the title track) was praised by reviewers and fans but brought Madonna to the critical attention of the religious right. She aroused further controversy when she appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards singing "Like a Virgin" in a combination wedding dress/bustier, writhing on the floor and revealing her underwear. The album spawned three number one hits: "Angel", "Dress You Up", and "Material Girl". (The "Material Girl" moniker would stay with her for some time.)
Madonna's meteoric ascent into the firmament of pop stardom paved the way for her transition to Hollywood. In 1985 she made a brief appearance in the film Vision Quest playing a club singer. (The role seemed designed chiefly to introduce more top ten hits, namely "Crazy For You" and "Gambler".) She also played a supporting role, alongside Rosanna Arquette, in the hit film Desperately Seeking Susan, for which she received good reviews. Her acting generally received negative reviews for the following seven years.
In 1985 she also married actor Sean Penn. She appeared with him in the 1986 flop Shanghai Surprise, which was unanimously panned by critics. The couple garnered a reputation for hostility towards the media, thanks to Sean's frequently violent outbursts against the paparazzi. Later in the year Madonna released her third hit album, True Blue. This produced the hits "Open Your Heart" (accompanied by a video in which she played a stripper who befriends a young boy), "True Blue", "Live to Tell", "Where's the Party", "La Isla Bonita" (accompanied by a video where she played a Spanish woman, the first introduction to the public of her seeming fetish for Latino culture) and "Papa Don't Preach", an anthem about keeping a baby conceived out of wedlock.
Around this time, a number of black and white nude photos of Madonna surfaced. They were published in both Penthouse and Playboy magazines. The photos were taken during the early 1980s when she posed for art photographers as a way to make money. Potentially devastating to her career, she shrugged them off and they only served to fuel her popularity.
At this point Madonna transformed her image, something that would become a trademark for years to come. She began to pale her face and highlight her beauty spot, replacing her punky bleached blonde hair with a glamorous platinum blonde look reminiscent of her hero Marilyn Monroe. This seemed to coincide with her performance in the film Who's That Girl, which was also a flop. Nevertheless, the soundtrack spawned two hits: the title track and "Causing a Commotion".
In 1987 she released an album of dance remixes of some of her earlier material entitled You Can Dance. It failed to sell as well as her previous efforts. She also appeared as Hortense in a Broadway production of Bloodhounds of Broadway, which was harshly dismissed by many reviewers. Critics began to peg Madonna as a thing of the past; her career seemed to be fading fast.
On September 14, 1989 she divorced husband Sean Penn, citing spousal abuse.
Then, in 1989, Madonna once again changed her image. She traded in her closely shorn platinum coif for long, curly black hair and an almost wholesome look for her album Like a Prayer. Returning once more to provocative religious imagery, the title track compared the experience of lovemaking to praying. The video for the song featured Madonna as a streetwalker who witnesses a violent rape and murder. She goes into a church where a black Jesus statue comes to life and makes love to her. The video, which also featured burning crosses, sparked such controversy that Pepsi Cola, who had paid Madonna millions of dollars for a commercial endorsement, pulled out of their contract. As the single soared to number one, Madonna thanked them for the controversy.
The album produced two further top ten hits - "Express Yourself" and "Keep it Together" - although "Oh Father" only made the top twenty. Additionally it featured a duet with singer Prince called "Love Song".
Madonna's career has been continually marked by controversial episodes in which she has outraged varous orthodox segments of society. Her critics have accused her of deliberately manufacturing controversy in order to market herself and thereby sell more albums. She responded to these charges by declaring herself to be "an artist", and therefore free to practice her craft in whichever manner she chooses.
In 1990 she starred as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy alongside Warren Beatty, whom she also briefly dated. She received mild praise for the role though critics pointed out that it continued her tradition of performing well when portraying characters quite similar to herself (in this case, a demanding and powerful vamp). The film's soundtrack spawned the huge hit "Vogue", which popularized a dance trend in which people in clubs struck poses like fashion models. She also released her first greatest hits album called The Immaculate Collection. She included two new songs, both top ten hits, "Rescue Me" and "Justify My Love". The latter was co-written by singer Lenny Kravitz. The sexual content of the song, coupled with an erotically charged music video, caused MTV, who had been so instrumental in Madonna's early success, to ban it. In response, the video was released standalone on videotape, the first "video single" ever released.
In 1991 Madonna starred in a hit documentary film, Truth or Dare, which chronicled her "Blonde Ambition Tour". In it her personality and private life were explored in intimate detail: the star came across as extremely ambitious, demanding, forthright, sexy and smart. It also showed her softer side as she confronted family members and visited the grave of her mother. Truth or Dare was retitled In Bed with Madonna for its UK release. This title was parodied by the UK TV show In Bed With Medinner.
In 1992 Madonna appeared in the Penny Marshall film A League of Their Own about a women's baseball team. Her performance was heralded by critics as an impressive return to the form she'd hinted at in Desperately Seeking Susan, though her character, "All-The-Way Mae", a libidinous vamp, again seemed to play directly off Madonna's real life.
1992 also saw the release of her erotic book, Sex. Adult in nature, it featured Madonna as the centerpiece of photographs depicting various sexual fantasies and acts (including lesbianism, anal sex, sadomasochism, homosexuality and simulated rape). The book was bound in sheet metal and mylar, and came with a CD single of her new song "Erotic", which was packaged to look like a giant condom.
She released her next album, Erotica, in the same year. Almost a companion piece to the book, it featured bold sexual anthems that made no attempt to disguise their star's appetite for erotic fantasy and role-playing. The album spawned a number of top ten hits, including "Erotica" and "Deeper And Deeper". Outside of America "Fever" and "Bye Bye Baby" were also hits, while domestically "Rain" (considered by many to be one of Madonna's best ballads) and "Bad Girl" went on to achieve modest chart success. Reviews of the book and album were, for the most part, unsympathetic, with many critics lambasting the "aging" provocateur for her "tasteless" use of sexuality to "shift units". However, despite the press brickbats, the book became an instant bestseller and the album went on to sell more than three million copies worldwide (less than previous albums, but still a huge hit by anyone else's standards).
The Madonna "industry" appeared to go into overdrive in 1993 when she appeared in a number of film roles. Body of Evidence was regarded by many commentators as an exercise in soft-core pornography, with Madonna portraying a woman accused of killing her lover by means of sexual intercourse. The film contained copious nudity and graphic sex scenes. Dangerous Game was similar in plot and content. Madonna would later comment that this entire period of her life was designed to give the world every single morsel of what they seemed to be demanding in their invasion of her private life. She hoped that once it was all out in the open, people could settle down and focus on her actual work.
In 1994 Madonna released Bedtime Stories. The album, which took her back to her R&B roots, found her in sultry voice as she tackled a number of topics which extended far beyond the subject matter of her early songs. The top ten hit "Secret" told the story of a heterosexual man in love with a transsexual, while "Human Nature" - which included lines such as: "I'm not sorry / I'm not your bitch" and "Did I say something wrong? Oops, I didn't know I couldn't talk about sex" - appeared to be directed at the media and critics who had questioned her decisions in recent years. Other top ten hits included "Bedtime Story", penned by singer Björk, and "Take a Bow", penned by singer Babyface, who also sang vocals. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the same year, and Madonna sang this song at the awards.
Despite the apparent "maturity" of Bedtime Stories, Madonna seemed in no rush to put her reputation for controversy behind her. In March 1994 she made an appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman where she repeatedly used profanity, saying the word "fuck" 13 times.
In an attempt to improve her acting credentials, Madonna opted over the next few years to take small roles in independent films. She appeared as a singing telegram girl in Blue in the Face (1995) and as a witch in Four Rooms (1995). She also appeared as a phone sex company owner in Spike Lee's flop Girl 6 in 1996.
In a further attempt to soften her image, she released a second greatest hits album in 1996, this time collecting a number of ballads under the title Something to Remember. She began to wear fashionable designer dresses and softened her (by now medium length) hair to honey blonde. This may have helped her to secure the coveted role of Eva Peron in the 1996 film Evita. The film marked the first time Madonna was heralded as an actress in a leading role. She delivered a Golden Globe winning performance and was critically praised; nevertheless, her detractors still managed to point out the similarities between the character (a former actress and fame-hungry politican's wife) and Madonna's own life.
In 1998 Madonna reinvented herself yet again. During 1996 and 1998 she began studying mystical Judaism and The Kaballah. She took Yoga lessons and pursued a vigorous exercise regime that brought her body to a peak of toned fitness. She became pregnant by her then lover, personal trainer Carlos Leon, and bore his child Lourdes Leon Ciccone in 1996. In 1998 she released Ray of Light, an album co-produced by European techno music performer William Orbit. The album became her biggest hit in nearly ten years, selling over ten million copies. It spawned the top ten singles "Frozen", "Ray of Light", "Drowned World / Substitute For Love", "Nothing Really Matters" (accompanied by a video in which she portrayed a cross between a clubber and a geisha girl), and "The Power of Goodbye".
Her vocals were notably stronger, likely an after effect of the vocal training she received for Evita. The lyrics were some of Madonna's most introspective. "Mer Girl" dealt with motherhood from the perspective of a woman who had lost her own mother as a child; "Little Star" was a paean to the wise choices her own daughter would make in the future; "Swim" addressed the topic of violence in popular culture. Still, critics were quick to note that Madonna was doing only what she knew best: taking things from the cultures around her (in this case, techno music and Eastern mysticism) and refining them for mass consumption. Madonna received her first Grammy award in her 15 year career for Ray of Light.
After endlessly promoting Ray of Light, Madonna focused next on her pet project: a film called The Next Best Thing. Co-starring her friend, the openly gay actor Rupert Everett, the story revolved around a heterosexual woman and her gay best friend. After a drunken night of sex they discover she is pregnant, and decide to raise the child together, but outside romances intervene to cause conflict and estrangement. Critics praised the first half of the film, but panned the second half in which the film mutated into a courtroom drama. The soundtrack spawned the top ten hit "American Pie", a dance cover version of the Don McLean classic. The film itself, released in 2000, was a flop. Madonna contributed the top ten hit "Beautiful Stranger" to the soundtrack of the film Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me in the same year.
In 2000 Madonna released the album Music. A bona fide commercial and critical hit, it saw Madonna abandon her earlier sexual and religious themes for throwaway lyrics and the "party" spirit of dance, pop and techno. Music was produced partly by Orbit and partly by French techno musician Mirwais. It spawned the top ten hits "Music", "Don't Tell Me", and "What It Feels Like For a Girl". The latter was accompanied by a striking music video directed by Madonna's then boyfriend, film director Guy Ritchie. In it Madonna robs an Automatic Teller Machine, runs over several innocent bystanders, blows up a gas station and eventually commits suicide by driving into a wall. The video was meant to showcase the fact that when men in film commit violent acts it is accepted, but when women do it just as mercilessly, it is shunned. Her point was arguably confirmed when the video was banned by MTV. Music was notable for another revamping of Madonna's image, this time as a cross between a disco-loving party girl and a rustic cowgirl. It started yet another fashion trend, with pink cowboy hats adorned by tiaras cropping up on high streets and catwalks around the world.
In 2000 Madonna married director Guy Ritchie and appeared in a short film he directed for BMW called Star. She released her second Greatest Hits album in 2001, entitled GHV2 and began working on a remake of the classic film Swept Away, about a wealthy socialite who, after a shipwreck, is trapped on a deserted island with a poor male servant. The film, released in 2002, was critically panned and went on to become yet another in a string of flops. She gave birth to her second child, a son - Rocco - in the same year.
In 2002 Madonna continued to make music ("Die Another Day" for the James Bond film of the same title), and to act. She seemed to have settled into the role of an Earth Warrior/Mother, spiritualist and assertive, ambitious entertainer. Apparently content with her second marriage, her career, although nothing like what it was in the mid 1980s, continued to keep her in the limelight.
Her artistic reputation appeared to take a turn for the worse, however, when the critical drubbing she received for Swept Away was followed by an equally brutal critical reception for her 2003 album American Life. Critics described the album as "tired", monotonous, and an indication that she was "in need of a vacation" from the stress of her career. In yet another move that followed her pattern of creating "controversy" in the wake of an album's release, she filmed a music video for the album that included a scene of her tossing a hand grenade into the lap of a President George W. Bush lookalike. The video was revoked, presumably at her own request, on the day it premiered (it was aired for only a few hours) and replaced by a more "neutral" video. Almost immediately after this incident, the online world was surprised and amused when marketers and promoters of her album attempted to disrupt the Internet file sharing networks by uploading a large number of "junk" musical files bearing her name. Instead of downloading an actual Madonna song, seekers of online music instead found themselves downloading a file of Madonna saying, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?". The Madonna Remix Project took this file and added music to mock Madonna's attempt to "inspire guilt" in P2P users. [1]
Famous for her appearances at the MTV Video Music Awards, in 2003 Madonna provoked the public once again by kissing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera on stage while the three singers performed a medley of "Like A Virgin" and her most recent single, "Hollywood". The design resembled Madonna's performance of "Like A Virgin" at the 1984 VMA's: the same wedding cake set, wedding dresses and "Boy Toy" belt worn by Madonna in 1984 now adorned Aguilera and Spears, who many believe - not least the pop "princesses" themselves - to be the heirs and beneficiaries of Madonna's pop legacy.
Trivia
- Brother Christopher Ciccone is an interior designer to the stars.
- Her own record label, Maverick Records, is responsible for the success of such stars as Alanis Morissette, Me'Shell Ndege'Ocello and The Prodigy.
- Performed with the Alvin Ailey dance troupe.
- Has been condemned by the Puerto Rican House of Representatives (for pulling a Puerto Rican flag across her genitals).
- Was offered Meryl Streep's role in Music of the Heart and Sharon Stone's role in Casino but turned both down. (Streep was nominated for an Oscar; Stone won one.)
- Has an IQ of 140.
- Has sold 153 million albums worldwide.
- Designer Stella McCartney, daughter of Paul and Linda, was Matron of Honor at Madonna's second wedding. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was apparently the first choice but decided against it.
Discography
Madonna's albums with some of the main singles from each album.
Studio Albums
- 1983 Madonna ("Holiday", "Lucky Star", ...) [reissued as: The First Album]
- 1984 \Like A Virgin ("Material Girl", "Angel", ...)
- 1986 True Blue ("Papa Don't Preach", "La Isla Bonita", ...)
- 1989 Like A Prayer ("Express Yourself", "Cherish", ...)
- 1990 I'm Breathless - Music From And Inspired By The Film "Dick Tracy" ("Vogue", "Hanky Panky", ...)
- 1992 Erotica ("Erotica", "Fever", "Rain", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bye-Bye Baby", ...)
- 1994 Bedtime Stories ("Secret", "Take A Bow", "Bedtime Story", "Human Nature", ...)
- 1998 Ray Of Light ("Ray of Light", "Frozen", "The Power Of Goodbye", "Drowned World / Substitute For Love", "Nothing Really Matters", ...)
- 2000 Music ("Music", "Don't Tell Me", "What It Feels Like For a Girl", ...)
- 2003 American Life ("American Life", "Hollywood", "Nobody Knows Me", ...)
- 2003 Remixed and Revisited (E.P. featuring unreleased tracks and rock and roll versions of "American Life" singles)
Compilations
- 1987 You Can Dance ("Spotlight", "Into The Groove", ...)
- 1990 The Immaculate Collection ("Vogue", "Into The Groove", ...)
- 1995 Something To Remember ("This Used To Be My Playground", "Oh Father", ...)
- 2001 GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2 ("Beautiful Stranger", "Human Nature", ...)
Soundtracks
- 1985 Vision Quest ("Gambler", "Crazy For You")
- 1987 Who's That Girl - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ("Who's That Girl", "Causing A Commotion", ...)
- 1994 Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack "With Honors" ("I'll Remember")
- 1996 Evita - The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack ("Don't Cry For Me Argentina", ...)
- 1999 Music from the Motion Picture "Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me" ("Beautiful Stranger")
- 2000 Music from the Motion Picture "The Next Best Thing" ("American Pie", "Time Stood Still")
- 2002 Music from the MGM Motion Picture "Die Another Day" ("Die Another Day")
Other Albums
- 1989 The Early Years ("On The Street", "Wild Dancing", ...)
- 1996 Pre-Madonna ("Laugh To Keep From Crying", "Don't You Know?", ...)
- 1998 In The Beginning (contains the same tracks as Pre-Madonna)
External links
- Madonna.com
- Artist Direct
- Artist Biography
- The A-Z of Madonna
- Jeffrey's Music Room
- German Madonna Page
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Madonna (singer)."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Madonna is a Roman Catholic title for Mary, mother of Jesus. The term is synonymous with Mother of God.There are many art works with the title The Madonna or similar titles like Madonna and Child, often depicting Mary caring for Jesus as a baby or toddler.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "The Madonna."
Synonyms: MadonnaSynonyms: Madonna Louise Ciccone (n), Mary (n), The Virgin (n), Virgin Mary (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Angel | Saint, patron saint, Madonna; invisible helpers. |
Good Man | Good woman, perfect lady, Madonna. |
Piety | Believer, convert, theist, Christian, devotee, pietist; the good, the righteous, the just, the believing, the elect; Saint, Madonna, Notre Dame, Our Lady. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Madonna |
| English words defined with "Madonna": aspirant, aspirer ♦ hopeful ♦ wannabe, wannabee. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Madonna": Impannata. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "Madonna": Monkey. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Madonna" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Afrikaan (Madonna), Dutch (Madonna), Finnish (madonna), German (Madonna), Hungarian (Madonna), Italian (Madonna), Swedish (Madonna). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I think it was Madonna. (The Other Sister; writing credit: Alexandra Rose; Blair Richwood) Just Claw, one word like Madonna. (Inspector Gadget; writing credit: Andy Heyward; Jean Chalopin) Is that like a Cher, or a Madonna, or do you have a last name (Charmed; writing credit: Colman deKay) Get him a Madonna. (Jack; writing credit: James DeMonaco; Gary Nadeau) You do Martha Graham Martha Graham Martha Graham, or Twyla Twyla Twyla, or Michael Kidde Michael Kidde Michael Kidde Michael Kidde, or Madonna Madonna Madonna Madonna but you keep it all inside (The Birdcage; writing credit: Jean Poiret; Francis Veber) | |
Lyrics | Lady Madonna, children at your feet (Lady Madonna; performing artist: The Beatles) Though I've got more hooks than Madonna got looks, (Extra Ordinary; performing artist: Better Than Ezra) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Polizeiruf 110 - Eine Madonna zu viel (1973) De Madonna van Nedermunster (1970) Het Meisje en de madonna (1958) De Madonna in de kunst (1956) Madonna delle rose (1954) | |
Song Titles | Lady Madonna (performing artist: The Beatles) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
![]() | Saint with Madonna and child sculpture and altar piece. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Madonna from Burial of Christ. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Madonna. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Painting of madonna and child called "The Lady of Kazan" in Russian cathedral. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Side altar in the church dedicated to the Madonna and to Santiago Matamoro, Trampas, New Mexico. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Kheiralla, Dr., Armenian manuscript illumination of Madonna and Child. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Mrs. Esther Wheeler, book photos at 1506 Woodside Ave., Baldwin, Long Island. Madonna and lavabo. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | Paintings. Madonna. Credit: Library of Congress. |
![]() | Statues and sculpture. Madonna and child sculptuure. Credit: Library of Congress. | ![]() | National Cathedral interiors. Central niche in National Cathedral with Madonna and child, horizontal. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
![]() | ![]() |
| "Madonna at a fountain" by M.Jander Commentary: "Staue on a fountain beneath the trees, freiburg, germany." | "Madonna" by Lennart Jireland Commentary: "Flowers in my garden." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
| Piece very typical of Madonna circa mid-1980's. | Pop excerpt with Latin influences and a melody reminiscent of a Madonna tune. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | I admit I could not be more interested in myself if I were the illegitimate son of Narcissus and Madonna looking at a disco ball through the eyes of a fly. |
Madonna | Don't read the newspapers. Don't read magazines, and don't watch TV, sorry. I'll watch this interview though. |
| We shot the movie in Malta in Sardinia, and obviously it was, you know, a huge benefit that I was married to the director and so we were together as a family the entire time. And that was fabulous. I loved it. | |
Rosie O'Donnell | I'm getting better. Taking yoga every day. Madonna was funny in teaching me that six years ago, she begged me to do yoga, and I was like, shut up. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Madonna" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 97.06% of the time. "Madonna" is used about 679 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (proper) | 97.06% | 659 | 9,937 |
| Noun (singular) | 2.94% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Total | 100.00% | 679 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following table summarizes the usage of "Madonna" based on a population census conducted in the United States. Ranks and frequencies are based on all names reported and classified. |
| Name | Usage/Gender | Usage per 100 million Persons | Rank in USA |
| Madonna | First name Female | 6,000 | 1,176 |
| Madonna | Last name | 400 | 20,720 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits. | |||
Expressions using "Madonna": madonna lily ♦ Madonna Louise Ciccone ♦ sistine madonna ♦ sixtine madonna. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Madonna": madonna-like, madonna-whore. | |
Ending with "Madonna": anti-madonna. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
madonna | 19,331 | madonna music | 106 |
madonna nude | 982 | nude pic of madonna | 101 |
madonna picture | 709 | another day die madonna | 91 |
lyrics madonna | 588 | black madonna | 90 |
madonna ciccone | 449 | madonna news | 82 |
madonna inn | 396 | madonna song | 77 |
american life madonna | 332 | madonna mp3 | 76 |
madonna sex | 315 | madonna discography | 73 |
madonna rock | 285 | hollywood lyrics madonna | 73 |
madonna naked | 260 | madonna book | 68 |
hollywood madonna | 257 | madonna gallery | 66 |
madonna university | 225 | nude picture of madonna | 65 |
madonna sex book | 215 | madonna movie | 61 |
madonna photo | 199 | da madonna rock vinci | 61 |
madonna and child | 193 | madonna erotica | 59 |
madonna biography | 172 | do it with madonna | 57 |
hollywood madonna video | 128 | sexy madonna | 48 |
madonna wallpaper | 121 | madonna song lyrics | 47 |
american life lyrics madonna | 115 | madonna grime | 47 |
madonna video | 111 | madonna frozen | 45 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "Madonna"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | Moedermaagd, Madonna. (various references) | |
Albanian | Madonë. (various references) | |
Arabic | سيدة (dame, lady, ma'am, madam, mistress, sister), السيدة العذراء. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | Света Богородица. (various references) | |
Czech | Madona. (various references) | |
Danish | madonnalilje (Annunciation lily, Easter lily, Madonna lily). (various references) | |
Dutch | Madonna. (various references) | |
Esperanto | Madono. (various references) | |
Finnish | madonnankuva, madonna. (various references) | |
French | Madone, Sainte-Vierge. (various references) | |
German | Madonna. (various references) | |
Greek | όαντόνα, Παναγία. (various references) | |
Hungarian | Madonna. (various references) | |
Indonesian | madona. (various references) | |
Italian | Madonna. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | マトリックス力学 (enthusiasm, enthusiast, madeleine, mademoiselle, Madras, Madras check, Madrid, madrigal, mania, maniac, manicure, manierisme, manifesto, Manila, manipulate, manipulation, manipulator, Manitoba, manners, mannish, mannish look, manual, manual manipulator, manufacture, manuscript, matrix dynamics, minutia, muddler, mutton, sailor). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | マドンナ . (various references) | |
Manx | Yn Voidyn Moirrey (The Blessed Virgin). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | adonnamay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | madona, nossa senhora, imagem de nossa senhora. (various references) | |
Romanian | Madonã. (various references) | |
Russian | Мадонна, мадонна. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | madona, bogorodica (virgin mary). (various references) | |
Spanish | Madona, Virgen (primaeval, primeval, virgin). (various references) | |
Swedish | Madonnabild, Madonna. (various references) | |
Turkish | Meryem Ana (holy virgin, Maria, Mary, our lady, the virgin mary, virgin mother). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | Мадонна. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | tranh Thánh mẫu, tượng Thánh mẫu. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Lilium candidum. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "Madonna": madonnas. (additional references) | |
| |
"Madonna" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Madinah, Madinka, madona, Maidana, Mamouna, Mandinka, Matonna, Mavonia, Medonca, Medoune, Misonne, Modenda, Modugna. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "Madonna" (pronounced mudÄ"nu) |
| 4 | -d Ä" n u | Donna. |
| 3 | -Ä" n u | Ana, iguana, liana, Mana, marijuana, Nirvana, Nona. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-d-m-n-n-o" | |
-2 letters: adman, daman, donna, manna, monad, nomad. | |
-3 letters: anna, anoa, anon, damn, dona, mana, mano, moan, naan, nada, nana, noma, nona. | |
-4 letters: ado, ama, ana, and, dam, dom, don, mad, man, moa, mod, mon, nam, nan, nod, nom. | |
-5 letters: aa, ad, am, an, do, ma, mo, na, no, od, om, on. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-d-m-n-n-o" | |
+1 letter: madonnas. | |
+2 letters: damnation. | |
+3 letters: calamondin, commandant, damnations, montagnard. | |
+4 letters: abandonment, calamondins, commandants, deamination, montagnards, nonacademic, nondramatic. | |
+5 letters: abandonments, contaminated, deaminations, delamination, nonacademics, nonautomated. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Spoken 11. Usage Frequency 12. Names: Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Translations: Ancient | 17. Derivations 18. Rhymes 19. Anagrams 20. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.