Synonyms

mondo

¹ American

[mon-doh] / mɒnˈdoʊ /

noun

Zen.

a question to a student for which an immediate answer is demanded, the spontaneity of which is often illuminating.

mondo ² American

adverb

very; extremely.

mondo cool.

adjective

large; big.

a mondo history paper.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

mondos

plural

Etymology

Origin of mondo¹

First recorded in 1925–30; from Japanese mondō, earlier mondau “rapid question and answer, catechesis between a rōshi (master) and student,” from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese wèn “inquire” + dá “reply”

Origin of mondo²

First recorded in 1965–70; from Italian mondo “world,” extracted from the film Mondo Cane ( “A Dog's World” ) (1962) and reinterpreted as an adverb in Italian or pseudo-Italian phrases such as mondo bizarro “very bizarre,” literally, “bizarre world”

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.

"But these dwarf galaxies have just these really mondo star-forming regions," said U-M astronomer Sally Oey, senior author of the study.

From Science Daily • Nov. 21, 2023

Another option that might work more quickly is to plant grasses — not turfgrass, but creeping ones such as mondo grass.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 7, 2022

So if this new sample, which has not been assigned a species, is bigger, then it was really mondo large.

From Slate • Jan. 22, 2021

Narrow channels planted with mondo grass let water permeate the ground, reaching the elm roots under the house.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 3, 2019

The original of the passage above is as follows: “Deó grande nopillar fantacia; mondo cosi cosi; si estar escrito in testa andar andar; sino acá morir.”

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55 1690-1691 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Blair, Emma Helen

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023