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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mum.

mother

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. mother

    Australia · Canada · India · Ireland · New-England · New-Zealand · Singapore · South-Africa · UK · informal
Where this word comes from

Alternative form of mam, or an abbreviation of mummy. Compare mom, mama.

noun/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. A chrysanthemum.

    US
  2. A decoration traditionally made of chrysanthemums and ribbons, worn by girls at high school homecoming celebrations, marked with indicators such as the wearer's name, school, the year, and so on.

    US
Where this word comes from

Abbreviation of chrysanthemum.

adj/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. Silent.

    archaic · colloquial · not-comparable
  2. Secret.

    colloquial · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mum or mom (“silent”), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to dated German Mumme (“mask”).

intj/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. stop speaking!, stop talking!, hush!

Where this word comes from

From Middle English mum or mom (“silent”), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to dated German Mumme (“mask”).

verb/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. To act in a pantomime or dumb show.

  2. To silence.

    UK · obsolete · slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mum or mom (“silent”), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to dated German Mumme (“mask”).

noun/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. Silence.

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mum or mom (“silent”), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to dated German Mumme (“mask”).

noun/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. A type of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

From German Mumme.

noun/mʌm//mʊm/Northern-England
  1. Alternative spelling of ma'am.

    alt-of · alternative · dated · informal
Where this word comes from

A variant of ma'am.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.