Word.ws English Dictionary

pa-rum-pum-pum-pum

pa-rum-pum-pum-pum interjection: imitation of drumming sounds; especially in reference to "The Little Drummer Boy," and the rhythm the titular drummer boy performed at the Nativity of Jesus.

Interjection

  1. (onomatopoeic) Imitation of drumming sounds; especially in reference to "The Little Drummer Boy," and the rhythm the titular drummer boy performed at the Nativity of Jesus.

Origin of pa-rum-pum-pum-pum

Onomatopoeia coined by Katherine Kennicott Davis; based on the French patapan which Davis personally felt translated to "pa-rum-pum-pum" [sic].

Questions about pa-rum-pum-pum-pum

What does pa-rum-pum-pum-pum mean?
Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum means imitation of drumming sounds; especially in reference to "The Little Drummer Boy," and the rhythm the titular drummer boy performed at the Nativity of Jesus.
What part of speech is pa-rum-pum-pum-pum?
Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum is an interjection.

Words near pa-rum-pum-pum-pum in the dictionary

  1. Pa-chung
  2. pa-leng
  3. Pa-li
  4. Pa-O
  5. pa-rum-pum-pum
  6. pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
  7. Pa-tung
  8. Pa.
  9. PA12
  10. PAA
  11. PAAc

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pa-rum-pum-pum-pum (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: “pa-rum-pum-pum-pum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pa-rum-pum-pum-pum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.