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:
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
When the mummy was found in 1991, it was initially treated as a normal cadaver.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
Whoever it was reminded Athans of a mummy in a low-budget horror film.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
"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
Working from the two newly described mummies, the researchers were able to assemble a complete, fleshy outline of Edmontosaurus annectens.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2025
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
“Yeah, but I’ve just finished reading a great book that tells all about what they did to the mummies and everything. I’ve got some tough ideas.”
From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
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 Dead Sea waves And Egypt caves Of mummied silence laugh When he mounts to quench the Siroc's stench And to wrench From his clutch the tyrant's staff.
From Song-Surf by Rice, Cale Young
Thus lifted into the night sky, her features could not be distinguished, and Marsyas believed that she was mummied, face and figure, in wrappings.
From Saul of Tarsus A Tale of the Early Christians by Miller, Elizabeth
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.
