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
… a morning rush of zombielike office workers, all starved for caffeine and clamoring for cappuccino.
—
Bob Filipczak
Bob Filipczak
zomboid
adjective
This is a poetry eerily populated with ghosts and mummies and zomboid creatures who go on living though dead from love.
—Patrick McGarth
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
Cregger is currently in production on Resident Evil, a reboot of the zombie franchise for Sony Pictures.
—Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 12 Dec. 2025
This lack of expression, zombie-like at its most extreme, can, of course, be the result of too much neurotoxin injected into the facial muscles.
—Valerie Monroe, Allure, 10 Dec. 2025
That means slashers, zombie movies, and body horror all get serviced here.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
The exhilarating new angles on zombie-horror tropes that should be dead and buried by now—the societal allegory, the design of the undead themselves—are impressive.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for zombie
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Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 12 Dec. 2025
This lack of expression, zombie-like at its most extreme, can, of course, be the result of too much neurotoxin injected into the facial muscles.
—Valerie Monroe, Allure, 10 Dec. 2025
That means slashers, zombie movies, and body horror all get serviced here.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
The exhilarating new angles on zombie-horror tropes that should be dead and buried by now—the societal allegory, the design of the undead themselves—are impressive.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 9 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for zombie
Cite this Entry
“Zombie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zombie. Accessed 17 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
zombie
noun
zom·bie
variants
also zombi
: 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
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