mumbo jumbo

American  

[muhm-boh juhm-boh] / ˈmʌm boʊ ˈdʒʌm boʊ /

noun

plural

mumbo jumbos

1. meaningless incantation or ritual.

2. senseless or pretentious language, usually designed to obscure an issue, confuse a listener, or the like.

3. an object of superstitious awe or reverence.

4. (initial capital letters) the guardian of western Sudan villages symbolized by a masked man who combats evil and punishes women for breaches of tribal laws.

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mumbo jumbo British  

/ ˈmʌmbəʊ /

noun

1. foolish religious reverence, ritual, or incantation

2. meaningless or unnecessarily complicated language

3. an object of superstitious awe or reverence

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Usage

More context on mumbo jumbo When someone isn’t making any sense, we might joke that they’re talking mumbo jumbo. However, it may not originally mean “a whole lot of mumbling.”Mumbo jumbo may come from maamajomboo, the Mandinka (a West African language) word for a masked male dancer who was involved in some arcane rituals. The potential problem with mumbo jumbo, though, is that it may have historically likened the speech or customs of African peoples to “nonsense,” as if unintelligible or amusing in some way to the European colonists who introduced or modified maamajomboo into the English language. If knowing the history of mumbo jumbo has got you reflecting on your word choices, this slideshow, "These Common Words Have Offensive Histories," discusses many other words whose place in your vocab you may want to reconsider. 

Etymology

Origin of mumbo jumbo

First recorded in 1730–40; of disputed origin

Example Sentences

Instead, they’re saying, ‘Oh, we’re not recommending testing—hand-wave gesture mumbo jumbo science. … Oh, but you can test if you want to.’

From Slate • Mar. 21, 2022

Boris Johnson told broadcasters this was the first time he was speaking out against anti-vax campaigners who were "putting out mumbo jumbo" and "spouting complete nonsense" about vaccines.

From BBC • Jan. 6, 2022

The Fremen will move front and center in Part 2, and frankly there’s lots of weird mumbo jumbo to wade through in the coming chapters.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 20, 2021

Hootie is the chairman of the National and the obvious person to see about the membership and the mumbo jumbo.

From Golf Digest • Apr. 9, 2020

“Hey dude,” he says, and then starts talking about some trail-run and mileage and other cross-country mumbo jumbo.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson