mondo
1[mon-doh]
noun, plural mon·dos. Zen.
a question to a student for which an immediate answer is demanded, the spontaneity of which is often illuminating.
RELATED WORDS
fantastic, colossal, awesome, marvelous, fabulous, formidable, dreadful, incredible, terrific, immense, amazing, wonderful, exceptional, astounding, great, extraordinary, excellent, prodigious, vast, enormous
Nearby words
- monde,
- mondegreen,
- mondeo man,
- mondial,
- mondini dysplasia,
- mondo grass,
- mondor's disease,
- mondrian,
- mondrian, piet,
- monecious
Compare koan.
Origin of mondo
11925–30; < Japanese mondō, earlier mondau < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese wèn inquire + dá reply
mondo
2Slang.
adverb
adjective
Origin of mondo
2< Italian mondo world, extracted from the film Mondo Cane (1961) and reinterpreted as an adv. in Italian or pseudo-Italian phrases such as mondo bizarro very bizarre, literally, bizarre world
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for mondo
Parenzos first name was Sigismondo, of which Mondo is the diminutive.
A Lady of Rome|F. Marion CrawfordLa gola, il dado e l'otiose piumeHanno dal' mondo ogni virt sbandita.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 10 (of 10)|Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
mondo
"very much, extreme," 1979, from Italian mondo "world," from "Mondo cane," 1961 film, literally "world for a dog" (English title "A Dog's Life"), depicting eccentric human behavior; the word was abstracted from the original title and taken as an intensifier.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper