Word.ws English Dictionary

wumpus

/ˈwʌmpəs/

wumpus noun: a fictional reclusive monster.

Noun

wumpus (plural wumpuses or wumpi)

  1. A fictional reclusive monster.
    • In addition to the Wumpus, other dangers are lurking: namely deadly pits, and bats that grab the player and drop her in a random cave.1987, Etienne Wenger, Artificial Intelligence and Tutoring Systems
    • A scream occurs when the agent shoots an arrow that kills the wumpus.2003, Selmer Bringsjord, Michael John Zenzen, Superminds: People Harness Hypercomputation, and More

Forms of wumpus

pluralwumpuses
pluralwumpi

Origin of wumpus

Coined in an early text-based computer game, Hunt the Wumpus (published 1973).

Questions about wumpus

What does wumpus mean?
Wumpus means a fictional reclusive monster.
What part of speech is wumpus?
Wumpus is a noun.
How do you pronounce wumpus?
Wumpus is pronounced /ˈwʌmpəs/.
What is the plural of wumpus?
The plural of wumpus is wumpuses.

Words near wumpus in the dictionary

  1. wumman
  2. wummen
  3. wumph
  4. wumphs
  5. wumpi
  6. wumpus
  7. wumpuses
  8. wun
  9. wun-dauk
  10. wun-dauks
  11. wun-gyi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wumpus (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:

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

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