Word.ws English Dictionary

dum dum

/ˈdʌm ˈdʌm/

dum dum noun: a soft point or hollow point bullet, designed to expand when it hits its target and therefore cause more serious damage. Also the alternative form of dumdum.

Noun

dum dum (plural dum dums)

  1. (informal) A soft point or hollow point bullet, designed to expand when it hits its target and therefore cause more serious damage.
    Synonyms:
    dum dum bullet

Proper noun capitalized: Dum Dum

Dum Dum

  1. A city in West Bengal; a suburb of Kolkata, India.
    1. The international airport of Kolkata, West Bengal, India, officially Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport.
      • At the time of going to press the useful evidence report consists of the fact that a storm warning was given to [BOAC Flight 783]’s captain, but that he, after consultations with meteorological people, decided to take off according to plan. The aircraft, following fire-warning-circuit rectification...1953, “Comet Accident Inquiry”, in Roland E. Dangerfield, editor, The Aeroplane, volume 84, page 668
  2. A locality in the Tweed council area, north eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Also used as

dum dum is also the alternative form of dumdum.

Synonyms of dum dum

Forms of dum dum

Noun
pluraldum dums
alternative formdum-dum
alternative formdumdum
Proper noun
alternative formDumdum

Origin of dum dum

Named after the Dum Dum arsenal in Calcutta, India.

A reduplication of dumb, spelled dumbly.

Transliteration of Bengali দমদম (domdom).

Words formed from dum dum

  • dumdum
  • Dum Dum Park
  • North Dum Dum
  • South Dum Dum

Questions about dum dum

What does dum dum mean?
Dum dum means a soft point or hollow point bullet, designed to expand when it hits its target and therefore cause more serious damage.
What part of speech is dum dum?
Dum dum can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dum dum?
Dum dum is pronounced /ˈdʌm ˈdʌm/.
What is the plural of dum dum?
The plural of dum dum is dum dums.

Words near dum dum in the dictionary

  1. dulzaina
  2. dulzainas
  3. dulzian
  4. dulzians
  5. dum
  6. dum dum
  7. dum dum bullet
  8. dum dum bullets
  9. Dum Dum fever
  10. dum dums
  11. dum palm

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dum dum (page history and authors); Dum Dum (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “dum dum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dum_dum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.