mummy
1 Americannoun
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the dead body of a human being or animal, treated with natural or chemical desiccants and preservatives as part of preparation for burial, as notably practiced in ancient Egyptian and South American cultures.
The Egyptian mummies on display, characteristically wrapped in multiple layers of linen, are more than 3,500 years old.
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a dead body dried and preserved by nature.
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a withered or shrunken living being.
When this mummy of a guy walked in, we were not expecting him to say that he’s our new fitness coach!
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a dry, shriveled fruit, tuber, or other plant organ, resulting from any of several fungal diseases.
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
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an embalmed or preserved body, esp as prepared for burial in ancient Egypt
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obsolete the substance of such a body used medicinally
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a mass of pulp
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a dark brown pigment
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mummy1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mummie, from Medieval Latin mummia, from Arabic mūmiyah “mummy,” literally, “bitumen,” from Persian mūm “wax”
Origin of mummy2
Explanation
A mummy is either a preserved dead body or a British person’s mom, ideally not at the same time. In ancient Egypt, preserving a body as a mummy was part of a religious belief in an afterlife. Today, some bodies are embalmed and preserved after death, but rarely with the same ceremony that preparing a mummy involved. Most mummies were wrapped in cloth and treated with chemicals, after having their internal organs removed. Many countries have ancient mummy traditions, including China, Libya, Iran, and Italy, as well as the country most famous for its mummies, Egypt. The word comes from the Arabic mumiyah.
Vocabulary lists containing mummy
Ancient Egypt - Introductory
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Ancient Egypt - Middle School and High School
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Ancient Egypt and Kush, Lessons 1–3
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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:
It is too early to say whether the yeast is harming the mummy, Sarhan said, calling for more research.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
It’s his movie and these are his mummy issues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
During Greco-Roman times, Egyptian artists were called upon to inscribe funerary spells on linen mummy bandages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 30, 2026
To investigate the source of mummy scents, researchers examined the air surrounding extremely small mummy fragments about the size of a peppercorn.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026
His stable agent, Sonny Greenberg, compared him to a mummy.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
In a joint Instagram post the pair, who both play for Saracens, wrote: "Baby Packer due October 2026 and your mummies and big brother can't wait to meet you."
From BBC ● Apr. 8, 2026
And while San Francisco may have the famous California Academy of Sciences, San Jose boasts the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, with mummies and a robot version of Thoth, ancient “Keeper of the Mysteries.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
Self professed Traitors superfan Aideen Dunn said the Newry traitor is "doing us mummies proud".
From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2026
Sereno emphasizes that these dinosaur mummies are very different from human-created mummies in Egyptian tombs; none of the original organic material is still present.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2025
Many of the child mummies exhibit signs of severe anemia, surprising in people who lived on seafood.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
A knock on the door, and there stands Heseltine resigning from Mrs. Thatcher's Cabinet, Marcos on the stump, Gaddafi playing cowboy on his tractor, mummied to the nose.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bronwyn hovered anxiously around an old woman who was teetering half-conscious in a chair, mummied up in a blanket.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
They picked their way among the mummied figures.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
The old priests sleep, white-shrouded, Their pottery whistles lie beside them, the prayer-sticks closely feathered; On every mummied face there glows a smile.
From Some Imagist Poets, 1916 An Annual Anthology by Aldington, Richard
Pi-beseth is Bubastis, where the sacred cats were mummied, likewise a desolation now.
From The Prophet Ezekiel An Analytical Exposition by Gaebelein, Arno C.
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.
