gum·bo
ˈgəm-(ˌ)bō 
plural gumbos
1
: a soup thickened with okra pods or filé and containing meat or seafoods and usually vegetables
2
3
a
: any of various fine-grained silty soils especially of the central U.S. that when wet become impervious and soapy or waxy and very sticky
b
: a heavy sticky mud
gumbo
adjective
Synonyms
Noun (1)
- agglomerate
- agglomeration
- alphabet soup
- assortment
- botch
- clutter
- collage
- crazy quilt
- farrago
- gallimaufry
- grab bag
- hash
- hodgepodge
- hotchpotch
- jambalaya
- jumble
- jungle
- litter
- macédoine
- medley
- mélange
- menagerie
- miscellanea
- miscellany
- mishmash
- mixed bag
- montage
- motley
- muddle
- olio
- olla podrida
- omnium-gatherum
- pastiche
- patchwork
- patchwork quilt
- potpourri
- ragbag
- ragout
- rummage
- salad
- salmagundi
- scramble
- shuffle
- smorgasbord
- stew
- tumble
- variety
- welter
Examples of gumbo in a Sentence
Noun (1)
drew his artistic inspiration from the city's rich gumbo of musical styles
Recent Examples on the Web
Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 17 June 2024
Crawdads on the Lake will offer a menu that includes Cajun pasta, Louisiana gumbo and jambalaya.
—Jacqueline Pinedo, Sacramento Bee, 13 June 2024
The quick-service eatery opened last September and serves iconic New Orleans dishes like gumbo, po’boys, muffaletta sandwiches, and beignets.
—Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 11 June 2024
The Gumbo Pot Under the kitchen island is a collection of innocuous-seeming cookware, but the big brown pot, a Disney imagineer revealed to PEOPLE, is the crock Tiana and her father make gumbo in at the beginning of the movie.
—Staff Author, Peoplemag, 12 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for gumbo 
Noun
The patriarch showed me a cell-phone video of someone dumping a funky gumbo of overage back into a river, to comply with the state’s limits.
—Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 17 June 2024
Crawdads on the Lake will offer a menu that includes Cajun pasta, Louisiana gumbo and jambalaya.
—Jacqueline Pinedo, Sacramento Bee, 13 June 2024
The quick-service eatery opened last September and serves iconic New Orleans dishes like gumbo, po’boys, muffaletta sandwiches, and beignets.
—Eve Chen, USA TODAY, 11 June 2024
The Gumbo Pot Under the kitchen island is a collection of innocuous-seeming cookware, but the big brown pot, a Disney imagineer revealed to PEOPLE, is the crock Tiana and her father make gumbo in at the beginning of the movie.
—Staff Author, Peoplemag, 12 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for gumbo
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gumbo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near gumbo
Cite this Entry
“Gumbo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gumbo. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
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