mumbo jumbo
Americannoun
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mumbo jumbos
plural
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meaningless incantation or ritual.
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senseless or pretentious language, usually designed to obscure an issue, confuse a listener, or the like.
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an object of superstitious awe or reverence.
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(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.
noun
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foolish religious reverence, ritual, or incantation
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meaningless or unnecessarily complicated language
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an object of superstitious awe or reverence
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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mumbo jumbo
First recorded in 1730–40; of disputed origin
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.
“I was very disappointed to see that we sent you a formal legal document filled with legal mumbo jumbo as the next step,” he wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
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
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
Move past the corporate mumbo jumbo and the idea that the organizational structure matters to the casual fan.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 23, 2019
“You told me that my father was alive. Now you’re giving me some New Age mumbo jumbo about him living in me.”
From "Shelter (Book One): A Mickey Bolitar Novel" by Harlan Coben
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.
