gumbo
noun
a stew or thick soup, usually made with chicken or seafood, greens, and okra or sometimes filé as a thickener.
gumbo
1 American
[guhm-boh]
/ ˈgʌm boʊ /
Gumbo
2
American
[guhm-boh]
/ ˈgʌm boʊ /
noun
(sometimes lowercase)
gumbo
1
British
/ ˈɡʌmbəʊ /
noun
-
the mucilaginous pods of okra
-
another name for okra
-
a soup or stew thickened with okra pods
-
a fine soil in the W prairies that becomes muddy when wet
Gumbo
2
British
/ ˈɡʌmbəʊ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gumbo1
1795–1805, < Louisiana French gombo, gumbo < a Bantu language; compare Umbundu ochinggombo, Luba chinggombo okra
Origin of Gumbo2
First recorded in 1835–40; probably from the same source as gumbo ( def. )
Explanation
Gumbo is a Louisiana Creole stew that's thick and spicy, usually containing shellfish and sausage and served over rice. When you're visiting New Orleans, you should definitely try some gumbo. One of gumbo's traditional thickeners is the vegetable called okra, which is sometimes also called gumbo, from the Angolan word kingombo. The ingredients of an authentic gumbo can vary a lot, though it almost always starts with celery, onions, and peppers and flavorful stock. From there, it needs a thickener (either a roux or cooked okra), spices, and meat or shellfish. Gumbo is the official food of the state of Louisiana.
Vocabulary lists containing gumbo
The Melting Pot: Food Words from Other Languages
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World Cuisine - Introductory
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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:
On a recent morning, Nones took photos for a cookbook, shooting portraits of residents who submitted recipes for Romanian stuffed cabbage and gumbo, coaching them from his chair.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
That includes mashed potatoes, chicken pot pie and casserole, or big pots of soup, chowder, gumbo and jambalaya.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2026
Adults are about two feet long and weigh some 15 to 20 pounds, with plenty of meat for a gumbo or stew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2025
A light touch of herbs, some seasonings and a bright pop of fresh lemon juice, and you have a most brilliant concoction, a concoction that is now as much of a Creole classic as gumbo.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2024
Before I could say anything in reply, she was across the yard, she and the cow squelching their way through the gumbo toward the sheep camp.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
One of the park’s earlier activists, Judy Gumbo, recalled a higher level of fervor in the spring of 1969, when her planned march for women’s rights was upended by contention over the fledgling park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2024
“We are getting into a match with both legs tied,” said CCC lawyer Agency Gumbo.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 9, 2023
Born from the marriage of West African stew and French bouillabaisse, Gumbo has not only been around for hundreds of years, but its countless variations shine a light on every family's heritage.
From Salon ● May 18, 2023
A co-owner, she gets credit for the look of the space, the former Gumbo Ya Ya.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2022
Gumbo stretched under the table waiting for any wayward piece of chicken or lost sausage to come his way.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
And because of that, our gatherings are generally joyous gumbos of movie quotes and good-natured insults.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2020
Folse said the “black pot cooking” of Louisiana, where gumbos, gravies and vegetables simmer slowly in cast iron, has its roots in the Caribbean and before that in West Africa.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 15, 2019
Whether a Cajun or Creole recipe, gumbos are now routinely thickened, at least in part, with some kind of roux, a mixture of flour and fat that’s browned in a pot.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 8, 2019
After he realised the scale of the problem, he founded the National Institute of Crayfish Trappers, and became Crayfish Bob, selling gumbos and crawfish boil.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 31, 2017
Although gumbos and étouffées define much of the cooking in southern Louisiana, Mosca’s is a stalwart of another, though less celebrated, vein of the New Orleans culinary canon that came from transplanted southern Italian immigrants.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 2011
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.
