mummy
1 Americannoun
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mummies
plural
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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
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mummies
plural
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:
The newly identified yeasts came from skin samples, meltwater inside the mummy, and stomach content samples.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026
At some point, it was torn into strips and used to wrap a mummy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
During excavations conducted between November and December 2025, a team led by Núria Castellano uncovered a Roman-era mummy in Tomb 65 of Sector 22.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
"The Egyptian mummy head is something from 3,000 years ago. It has an intrinsic value and an ownership, " he added.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Annabeth approached the mummy and held out her palms.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
Dating to the Ptolemaic Period, it consists of four mummies and a mummified dog placed on top of one another.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
"It was really nice to have her in the middle to celebrate that hundred – two mummies," Wyatt-Hodge said.
From BBC ● Jun. 12, 2026
Coffins holding centuries-old mummies at the museum were also destroyed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
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
They made you feel like those bandaged mummies in the museum.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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
None since the aged men who mummied the king.
From King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding to Lithend; Midsummer-Eve; Laodice and Dana? by Gordon Bottomley
And after the place of dead matter and mummied husks in gloom, where we had been wandering, this burst of leaves in full light was a return to life.
From The Sea and the Jungle by H. M. (Henry Major) Tomlinson
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.
