zombie

noun

zom·​bie ˈzäm-bē 

variants or less commonly zombi

1

a

: a will-less and speechless human (as in voodoo belief and in fictional stories) held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated

b

: the supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body

2

a

: a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead

especially : automaton

b

: a person markedly strange in appearance or behavior

3

: a mixed drink made of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice

zombielike adjective

or zombie-like

ˈzäm-bē-ˌlīk 

… a morning rush of zombielike office workers, all starved for caffeine and clamoring for cappuccino.

—Bob Filipczak

zomboid

ˈzäm-ˌbȯid 

adjective

This is a poetry eerily populated with ghosts and mummies and zomboid creatures who go on living though dead from love.

—Patrick McGarth

Examples of zombie in a Sentence

If I don't go to bed early I'll be a zombie tomorrow.

His students usually sat there in the classroom like zombies.

Recent Examples on the Web

But some of these insects won’t succeed in their goal of procreating — instead, they’ll be controlled like zombies into spreading a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior. —Kate Golembiewski, CNN, 15 Apr. 2024

Yes, 20 years since a motley group of Brits chose to ride out the zombie apocalypse at their local pub. —Longreads, 12 Apr. 2024

Vallow Daybell referred to her two youngest kids as zombies, one friend testified during her trial. —CBS News, 10 Apr. 2024

He is attached to work on a sequel trilogy to 28 Days Later, the 2002 zombie feature that launched his career, and also has a Peaky Blinders movie in the works to follow his long-running period gangster TV series. —Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Mar. 2024

But in January, the province saw an unprecedented peak of 106 active zombie fires. —Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 13 Mar. 2024

Scholars generally agree that horror entered the modern age in 1968, with the release of George Romero’s game-changing zombie movie Night of the Living Dead. —Katie Rife, EW.com, 12 Mar. 2024

And the 1978 movie has held up incredibly well over the years — much better than most of Romero’s other zombie epics. —Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 1 Apr. 2024

The cultural preoccupation with zombies shambles on in The Last of Us and other movies and video games. —Neda Ulaby, NPR, 1 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin; akin to Kimbundu nzúmbe ghost

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing zombie

• zombie-like

Kids Definition

zombie

noun

zom·​bie

variants also zombi

ˈzäm-bē 

: a person who is believed to have died and been brought back to life without speech or free will

Etymology

Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin