dumpling
Americannoun
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dumplings
plural
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a rounded mass of steamed and seasoned dough, often served in soup or with stewed meat.
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a dessert consisting of a wrapping of dough enclosing sliced apples or other fruit, boiled or baked.
-
a short or stout person.
noun
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a small ball of dough cooked and served with stew
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a pudding consisting of a round pastry case filled with fruit
apple dumpling
-
informal a short plump person
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of dumpling
1590–1600; dump (of uncertain origin) + -ling 1
Compare meaning
How does dumpling compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A dumpling is a delicious, bite-sized food that's made of savory ingredients wrapped in dough and cooked. Chinese dumplings can be steamed, boiled, or fried. If you order dumplings in a Chinese restaurant, you'll get a filling made with vegetables, meat, or fish — it might be a wonton, cooked in a soup, or a potsticker, steamed and then lightly fried. Most cultures have some version of a savory dumpling, and many have sweet dumplings as well, like apple dumplings, which have a fruit filling wrapped in pastry.
Vocabulary lists containing dumpling
Out of the Dust
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Foods from Asia
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 10–November 16, 2024
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Why are there concerns about popular dumpling squishy toys?
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
Amazon is now awash with squishy products: There is a cheese squishy, glitter dumpling squishies and even a squishy that resembles a stick of butter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
But that has largely been the result of viewers dumpling cable, not actual growth in the market, data show.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 30, 2026
The finished dumpling — which can be enjoyed as a quick snack or meal — is deliciously pillowy and spicy with a hint of zing.
From Salon ● Jan. 28, 2026
Ernie was looking rather grumpy; determined to outshine Harry for once, he had most rashly invented his own potion, which had curdled and formed a kind of purple dumpling at the bottom of his cauldron.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Served alongside native beach succulent, these Asian-style dumplings come topped with sesame seeds and a gochujang anise myrtle dressing.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
They often resemble dumplings, but children "can't see what's inside the box so they're excited to see which one they get".
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
After getting to know them, he found himself sharing dumplings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Trader Joe’s, of course, has done its part to thaw people’s feelings toward the freezer aisle: the orange chicken, the soup dumplings, the cheese-filled fiocchetti with pink sauce.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2026
Abuela fed us sancocho, a vegetable stew thickened with mashed tubers, with cornmeal dumplings floating on top.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
