Mumbo Jumbo \Mum"bo Jum"bo\, n. [Perh. fr. the native name of an
African god.]
1. Among the Mandingos of the western Sudan, a bugbear by
means of which the women are terrified and disciplined by
societies of the men, one of whom assumes a masquerade for
the purpose; hence, loosely, any Negro idol, fetish, or
bugaboo.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
The miserable Mumbo Jumbo they paraded. --Dickens.
[1913 Webster]
2. An object of superstitious homage and fear. --Carlyle.
[1913 Webster]
3. Incomprehensible or senseless language, usually intended
to avoid answering plainly, confuse a listener, or obscure
an issue.
[PJC]
4. Language so arcane or obscure as to be unintelligible to
the listener.
[PJC]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
mumbo jumbo
n 1: language that is unnecessarily difficult to understand
2: a state of confusion; ritual accompanied by complicated and
purposeless activity that obscures and confuses; "he
engaged in the hugger-mugger of international finance"
[syn: hugger-mugger]
WordNet (r) 2.0
162 Moby Thesaurus words for "mumbo jumbo":
Mumbo Jumbo, abracadabra, absurdity, amorphousness, amphigory,
amulet, anagoge, anagogics, anthroposophy, argot, babble,
babblement, balderdash, bibble-babble, blabber, blather, bogey,
bogeyman, boggart, bogle, bombast, booger, boogerman, boogeyman,
bug, bugaboo, bugbear, bugger, cabala, cabalism, cant, charm,
claptrap, conjuration, dark, darkness, double-talk, drivel, drool,
escamotage, esotericism, esoterics, esoterism, esotery,
fee-faw-fum, fetish, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, flummery, fog,
fogginess, folderol, fudge, fustian, fuzziness, fylfot, gabble,
galimatias, gammadion, gammon, gibber, gibberish, gibble-gabble,
gobbledygook, good-luck charm, hanky-panky, hocus-pocus,
hokey-pokey, hoodoo, humbug, incantation, indeterminateness,
indistinctness, jabber, jargon, jiggery-pokery, jugglery, juggling,
juju, legerdemain, lingo, love charm, lucky bean, lucky piece,
madstone, magic formula, magic words, mascot, mist, mistiness,
monkey business, mummery, murk, murkiness, mystery, mysticism,
mystification, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, obeah,
obfuscation, obscurantism, obscuration, obscurity, occultism,
opacity, open sesame, pack of nonsense, palaver, patois, patter,
periapt, perplexity, philter, phraseology, phylactery, prate,
prattle, prestidigitation, rant, rigamarole, rigmarole,
rodomontade, rubbish, scarab, scarabaeus, scarabee, scatology,
shapelessness, skimble-skamble, slang, sleight of hand,
stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence, sudarium, swastika, symbolics,
symbolism, taboo language, talisman, trash, trickery, trumpery,
twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, unclarity, unclearness,
unplainness, vagueness, vaporing, vernacular, veronica, vocabulary,
voodoo, vulgar language, waffling, whammy, yoga, yogeeism,
yogism
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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