Jumbie

//ˈdʒʌmbi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A ghost or evil spirit. Caribbean

    "If one wants to see “jumbies” “duppies” ghosts, all that is necessary is to put in your eye the tears from the eyes of a pie-bald horse. It is no use explaining to a negro that what he has taken to be a “jumbie” or apparition, is a tree or rock or other natural object."

Synonyms

All synonyms
duppy

Example

More examples

"If one wants to see “jumbies” “duppies” ghosts, all that is necessary is to put in your eye the tears from the eyes of a pie-bald horse. It is no use explaining to a negro that what he has taken to be a “jumbie” or apparition, is a tree or rock or other natural object."

Etymology

Borrowed from Kongo zumbi (“fetish”). Doublet of zombie.

Related phrases

jumbie beadmoko jumbie

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.