mummy

¹ American  

[muhm-ee] / ˈmʌm i /

noun

mummies plural

1. 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.

2. a dead body dried and preserved by nature.

3. 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!

4. a dry, shriveled fruit, tuber, or other plant organ, resulting from any of several fungal diseases.

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verb (used with object)

mummied, mummying

1. Archaic. to make into or cause to resemble a mummy; mummify.

mummy ² American  

[muhm-ee] / ˈmʌm i /

noun

Chiefly British Informal.

mummies plural

1. mommy.

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mummy ¹ British  

/ ˈmʌmɪ /

noun

1. an embalmed or preserved body, esp as prepared for burial in ancient Egypt

2. obsolete the substance of such a body used medicinally

3. a mass of pulp

4. a dark brown pigment

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mummy ² British  

/ ˈmʌmɪ /

noun

1. a child's word for mother 1

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unmummied
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mummies
  plural

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

First recorded in 1815–25; mum ⁴ + -y ²

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mummy mummies mummied

At some point, it was torn into strips and used to wrap a mummy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026

Archaeologists working at the ancient Egyptian site of Oxyrhynchus have made a remarkable discovery: a papyrus containing a passage from Homer's Iliad was found inside a Roman-era mummy dating back about 1,600 years.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

It is understood this is not the Egyptian mummy head.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

Yeast has been growing in the guts of a frozen mummy called Oetzi the Iceman for thousands of years, scientists have discovered, telling AFP they used it to make a tasty sourdough bread.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

My mom and dad took him to get medical treatment, and he emerged all wrapped up in bandages like a mummy.

From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana

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

Sampling the air around mummies provides a fast, non destructive method for examining fragile remains while preserving their physical condition.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026

Across all samples, scientists identified 81 distinct VOCs that offer clues about the materials used during the embalming process and the time periods in which the mummies were prepared.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 16, 2026

To get to where the mummies were, you had to go down this very narrow sort of hall with stones on the side that they'd taken right out of this Pharaoh's tomb and all.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

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

In passing the limestone cliffs we experience cold and wind; the mummied crocodile pits we pass, and stop at Aizril.

From My Trip Around the World August, 1895-May, 1896 by Hunt, Eleonora

On the level plain of the further bank the stiff jungle-grass had died standing, and, dying, had mummied.

From The Second Jungle Book by Kipling, Rudyard

Related Words

• dwindle
• shrink
• wilt
• wither