noun🎓 English idiom

mumbo-jumbo

meaningless or confusing language and nonsense

What it means

Mumbo-jumbo is language or ritual that sounds impressive but is incomprehensible, pretentious, or empty of real meaning. It is often used dismissively about jargon, superstition, or anything the speaker finds suspicious or fake.

Examples

  • I couldn't follow the lawyer's legal mumbo-jumbo.
  • He dismissed the whole spiritual ritual as mumbo-jumbo.
  • The instructions were full of technical mumbo-jumbo.
  • Don't let the corporate mumbo-jumbo distract you from the real numbers.

Where it comes from

From Mama Dyumbo, the name of a masked figure in Mandinka tradition in West Africa, reported by 18th-century European travelers. The term was then used pejoratively in English for any incomprehensible speech or ritual.

Related idioms

#hocus-pocus#hodge-podge#mish-mash#wishy-washy

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