JUMBO
What does "JUMBO" mean?
Very large; much bigger than the usual size.
Meanings
- Of a size far greater than normal; extra large. He ordered a jumbo bag of popcorn for the whole row.
- A very large person, animal, or thing, especially a jumbo jet. The jumbo taxied slowly toward the international terminal. informal
Did you know?
- The adjective 'jumbo' was once a proper name: Jumbo was an African elephant that P. T. Barnum bought from the London Zoo in 1882, and the public so adored the giant that his name became the English word for anything enormous.
Word origin
Popularized as the name of P. T. Barnum's famous circus elephant Jumbo (acquired 1882); the elephant's name likely derives from a West African word, possibly Swahili 'jumbe' (chief) or 'jambo' (hello).
Remember it
JUMBO begins with a 'JUM' you can almost hear an elephant make - and that elephant, Jumbo, is exactly where the word came from.
A little poem
A name once trumpeted across the ring
outgrew the beast who bore it, and became
the word we lend to every oversized thing.
tercet
Wordplay
- Why is 'jumbo shrimp' such a confusing order? Because the word means huge and the shrimp didn't get the memo.
What it teaches
A name given to one creature can grow until it belongs to none and applies to everything.
Quick facts
What does JUMBO mean?
Very large; much bigger than the usual size.
Is JUMBO a valid word?
Yes — JUMBO is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is JUMBO?
JUMBO has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does JUMBO come from?
Popularized as the name of P. T. Barnum's famous circus elephant Jumbo (acquired 1882); the elephant's name likely derives from a West African word, possibly Swahili 'jumbe' (chief) or 'jambo' (hello).
What can JUMBO teach us?
A name given to one creature can grow until it belongs to none and applies to everything.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.