Word.ws English Dictionary

'mum

'mum is the alternative form of mum.

Meaning of mum

Noun (1)

mum (plural mums)

  1. (Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New-England, New Zealand) mother
    • From the Marvel Mixmaster to the Miracle Microwave, every time a new-fangled gadget has lobbed into the Aussie kitchen, Aussie mums have changed their cooking styles accordingly.1987, Kerry Cue, Hang On To Your Horses Doovers, page 5

Noun (2)

mum (plural mums)

  1. (US) A chrysanthemum.
    • I don't know whether that's true or whether New Yorkers are being enjoined from watering the mums in their window boxes or whatever, but I do know that there hasn't been one rain-delay in the whole tournament so far […].1996, David Foster Wallace, “Democracy and Commerce at the US Open”, in Both Flesh And Not, Penguin, published 2013, page 139
  2. (US) A decoration traditionally made of chrysanthemums and ribbons, worn by girls at high school homecoming celebrations, marked with indicators such as the wearer's name, school, the year, and so on.

Noun (3)

mum (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Silence.
    • Entrust it under solemn Vows / Of Mum and Silence,[…]1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in...

Noun (4)

mum (uncountable)

  1. A type of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany.
    • The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of mum.1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC

See all 11 meanings of mum

Forms of 'mum

plural'mums

Questions about 'mum

What is 'mum the alternative form of?
'mum is the alternative form of mum.

Words near 'mum in the dictionary

  1. 'mon
  2. 'mones
  3. 'mong
  4. 'mongst
  5. 'mons
  6. 'mum
  7. 'mums
  8. 'murica
  9. 'murican
  10. 'Murikkka
  11. 'n

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 'mum (page history and authors); mum (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “'mum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/%27mum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.