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  1. mumbo jumbo love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Unintelligible or incomprehensible language; gibberish.
  2. n. Language or ritualistic activity intended to confuse.
  3. n. A complicated or obscure ritual.
  4. n. An object believed to have supernatural powers; a fetish.

Wiktionary

  1. n. historical A deity or other supernatural being said to have been worshipped by certain West African peoples; an idol.
  2. n. religion Any object of superstition; religious words and/or actions which are seen as superstitious or fraudulent.
  3. n. Any confusing or meaningless speech; nonsense, gibberish.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. 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.
  2. n. An object of superstitious homage and fear.
  3. n. Incomprehensible or senseless language, usually intended to avoid answering plainly, confuse a listener, or obscure an issue.
  4. n. Language so arcane or obscure as to be unintelligible to the listener.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. language or ritual causing, or intending to cause, confusion

Etymologies

  1. Probably from Mandinka maamajomboo ("mask; masked dancer"). What might be possible as well is the occurance of l-vocalization in the words "mumble" and "jumble". (Wiktionary)
  2. Perhaps of Mandingo origin . (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Traditional marketing focusing on factual mumbo jumbo presents an engineering-driven, rational, analytical view of customers, products, and competition that is full of untested assumptions.”

    Simon & Schuster: Experiential Marketing

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. gibber
  1. gibberish

reverse dictionary (2)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. jumbo
  1. touchy-feely

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. reduplicative

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Comments

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  • bilby Woohoo, acrostic stepladder! Jul 29, 2009

  • avivamagnolia =A masked figure among Mandingo peoples of western Africa
    =An object of superstitious homage and fear
    =A complicated often ritualistic observance with elaborate trappings
    =Complicated activity or language usually intended to obscure and confuse
    =Unnecessarily involved and incomprehensible language : gibberish
    =Language, behavior, or beliefs based on superstition Jan 19, 2009

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‘mumbo jumbo’ has been looked up 2217 times, loved by 1 person, added to 30 lists, commented on 2 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.