mumbo jumbo

[ muhm-boh juhm-boh ]

noun

, plural mum·bo jum·bos.

1. meaningless incantation or ritual.
2. senseless or pretentious language, usually designed to obscure an issue, confuse a listener, or the like.
3. an object of superstitious awe or reverence.
4. (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.

mumbo jumbo

/ ˈmʌmbəʊ /

noun

1. foolish religious reverence, ritual, or incantation
2. meaningless or unnecessarily complicated language
3. an object of superstitious awe or reverence

Word History and Origins

Origin of mumbo jumbo¹

First recorded in 1730–40; of disputed origin

Word History and Origins

Origin of mumbo jumbo¹

C18: probably from Mandingo mama dyumbo, name of a tribal god

Example Sentences

Sometimes, the words of a court room amount to mumbo jumbo to the occasional visitor.

From BBC

You’ve been quoted as saying that architecture is too often treated as a fine art, “delicately wrapped in mumbo jumbo,” when in fact it incorporates disciplines including science, math, and engineering.

From New York Times

He was speaking his usual mumbo jumbo about hardcore software-writing and “the code stack” — but, in essence, he was right.

From Washington Post

Regina wasn’t buying his sales pitch and wrote back that Armstrong and his church were feeding Bobby a line of mumbo jumbo and engaging in fear mongering.

From Literature

A growing field of study known broadly as ecopsychology suggests that the health benefits of time outdoors are more than just New Age mumbo jumbo.

From Washington Post

About This Word

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. 

Keep in mind …

You might want to avoid using mumbo jumbo due to its potentially offensive implications and past. Some words you can consider instead of mumbo jumbo—for the many times we all mutter on in incomprehensible lingo or babble incoherently—include gibberish, hogwash, hocus-pocus, or gobbledygook.

Make sense of more nonsense words over at Thesaurus.com.