Word.ws English Dictionary

mummeries

mummeries is the plural of mummery.

Meaning of mummery

Noun

mummery (countable and uncountable, plural mummeries)

  1. (archaic, literally) Mumming; disguising oneself to perform as a mummer, or to take part in some other festivities or performance.
    • I say the sewer thought I was dressed to bear a part in the tregetour’s mummery, and so I got admission1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
  2. (figuratively) A ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, formerly especially of a religious nature; extravagant or hypocritical performance.
    • The twentieth of September, they are bound
      Fast from the midnight watch to pray till morn.—
      More would he not disclose, or knew not more.
      —What precious mummery!1781, Horace Walpole, The Mysterious Mother, Act 1 Scene 1

Questions about mummeries

What is mummeries the plural of?
Mummeries is the plural of mummery.

Words near mummeries in the dictionary

  1. mummed
  2. mummeite
  3. Mummel
  4. mummer
  5. mummered
  6. mummeries
  7. mummering
  8. mummerings
  9. mummers
  10. Mummerset
  11. Mummert

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mummeries (page history and authors); mummery (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: “mummeries.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mummeries. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.