mummy

noun mum·my \ ˈmə-mē \

|Updated on: 19 Jun 2018

Definition of mummy

plural mummies

1 a : a body embalmed or treated for burial with preservatives in the manner of the ancient Egyptians

b : a body unusually well preserved

2 : one resembling a mummy

See mummy defined for kids

Recent Examples of mummy from the Web

The had yielded over 500 graves from between the 12th and 16th centuries, but the mummy hand stood alone.

— laura yan, Popular Mechanics, "Why Was This Baby's Hand Mummified, But Not the Rest of Its Body?," 20 May 2018
The mummies are cool to the touch; their skins flake off.

— jon carroll, San Francisco Chronicle, "Thoughts while plucking mummies, 1992," 28 Mar. 2018
Plastic mummies hang horizontally above the sweating crowd of dancers.

— aimee levitt, Chicago Reader, "Archive Dive / Music / Neighborhoods A look back at a punk club doorman and his buffet of food offerings," 23 May 2018
Until now, the oldest evidence for HPV was a strain discovered in a 16th century Italian mummy.

— michael price, Science | AAAS, "Liver-destroying virus may have been with us since the dawn of civilization," 9 May 2018
In 2003, Oscar Munoz found a mummy in the Atacama Desert ghost town of La Noria.

— kiona n. smith, Ars Technica, "Despite alien theories and novel mutations, the real Ata puzzle may be ethical," 18 Apr. 2018
In 2017, the ministry found a necropolis holding at least 17 mummies in the area of Tuna al-Gabal.

— Washington Post, "Archaeologists find ancient necropolis in Egypt," 24 Feb. 2018
Foil is aluminum; a mummy (not the dead Egyptian kind) is a mom.

— CBS News, "America and England, separated by a common language," 13 May 2018
Many of the mummies were discovered in Luxor in the vast Valley of the Kings, a graveyard for over 500 years of Egyptian history and more than 60 tombs.

— norma meyer, sandiegouniontribune.com, "12 days to explore the ancient wonders of Egypt," 10 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mummy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of mummy

Middle English mummie powdered parts of a mummified body used as a drug, from Anglo-French mumie, from Medieval Latin mumia mummy, powdered mummy, from Arabic mūmiya bitumen, mummy, from Persian mūm wax

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1615

in the meaning defined at sense 1a

See Words from the same year