lumpen

/ˈlʌmpən/

lumpen adjective: lump-like.

Adjective (1)

lumpen (not comparable)

Lump-like.
- [About prominent critics lambasting his film 2001:] New York was the only really hostile city. Perhaps there is a certain element of the lumpen literati that is so dogmatically atheist and materialist and Earth-bound that it finds the grandeur of space and the myriad mysteries of cosmic...1968, Stanley Kubrick, Playboy magazine interview, September 1968, page 94
- This something, which is neither body nor machine but interior and alien to them both, pertains to the 'meat' in Gibson's world insofar as the 'meat' - that useless corporeal remainder discarded by the machine - retains an excess that cannot be reduced to the lumpen mass of fleshy existence.2000, Joanne Morra, Mark Robson, Marquard Smith, The Limits of Death: Between Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, →ISBN, page 72

lumpen

Of or relating to social outcasts.
- A little lumpen novelita. [Story of orphaned teenagers turning to crime.]2014, Roberto Bolaño (tr. Natasha Wimmer), A Little Lumpen Novelita (2014 English of 2002 book)
Of or relating to the lumpenproletariat.
Plebeian.

lumpen (plural lumpens)

A member of the lumpenproletariat.
- In Sydorenko's memorable words: "Our ideals as 'lumpens' are: to find a cozy place, to eat well, to multiply and to die peacefully. A 'lumpen' does not have a nationality, nor does he have a fatherland. Nor conscience. He remains beyond politics and morality."1993, Yaroslav Bilinsky, “Ukraine: The Multiple Challenges to Independence”, in The Harriman Institute Forum, volume 7, numbers 1-2, page 31

lumpen (third-person singular simple present lumpens, present participle lumpening, simple past and past participle lumpened)

(ambitransitive, rare) To make or become like lumps; make or become lumpy
- They had chicken soup with the matzo meal balls a little lumpened by hurry, challah, roast chicken, kasha, honey-cake.1959, Harold Uriel Ribalow, The chosen, page 298

உதிரி

Billy and Dandy had draped a tarp over the body but the shape itself looked lumpen and grotesque.2003, Dana Stabenow, A Grave Denied, →ISBN, page 17:
a slaloming winger putting lumpen defenders on their backsides, or even a sneaky centre-forward, using his boundless energy to lead the press and force mistakes.2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian:

Noun
plural	lumpens
Verb
third-person singular present	lumpens
present participle	lumpening
past participle	lumpened
past	lumpened

From lump + -en (adjectival suffix).

Shortened from German Lumpenproletariat, from Lump (“a contemptible person”) + Proletariat.

From lump + -en (verbal suffix).

What does lumpen mean?: Lumpen means lump-like.
What is lumpen in Tamil?: Lumpen in Tamil is உதிரி. See Lumpen meaning in Tamil.
How do you use lumpen in a sentence?: Billy and Dandy had draped a tarp over the body but the shape itself looked lumpen and grotesque.
What part of speech is lumpen?: Lumpen can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce lumpen?: Lumpen is pronounced /ˈlʌmpən/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: lumpen (page history and authors); lumpen (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lumpen.wav.

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