Word.ws English Dictionary

purple monkey dishwasher

purple monkey dishwasher phrase: a nonsense phrase used at the end of a chain in a game of Chinese whispers, or when conveying a message on behalf of another, or others.

Phrase

purple monkey dishwasher

  1. (humorous) A nonsense phrase used at the end of a chain in a game of Chinese whispers, or when conveying a message on behalf of another, or others.
    • And since the spring of 1995, no game of telephone has ended without some Simpsons-loving smart-ass dropping “purple monkey dishwasher” into the chain.2013 October 27, Erik Adams, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “The PTA Disbands””, in The Onion AV Club

Origin of purple monkey dishwasher

Originated in The Simpsons episode "The PTA Disbands" (1995).

Questions about purple monkey dishwasher

What does purple monkey dishwasher mean?
Purple monkey dishwasher means a nonsense phrase used at the end of a chain in a game of Chinese whispers, or when conveying a message on behalf of another, or others.
What part of speech is purple monkey dishwasher?
Purple monkey dishwasher is a phrase.

Words near purple monkey dishwasher in the dictionary

  1. purple martin
  2. purple martins
  3. purple meadowrue
  4. purple milkweed
  5. purple milkweeds
  6. purple monkey dishwasher
  7. purple nasties
  8. purple nasty
  9. purple noise
  10. purple notice
  11. purple notices

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purple monkey dishwasher (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-purple monkey dishwasher.wav.

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