Jumble
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A mixture of often unrelated things. countable, uncountable
"His voice was rich and mellow and he had so long been thoroughly persuaded of the weight and import to mankind of any word he said that his words really had come to sound as if there were something in them. But now he can only whisper, and what he whispers sounds like what it is—mere jumble and jargon."
- 2 A small, thin, sugared cake, usually ring-shaped. archaic
- 3 a theory or argument made up of miscellaneous or incongruous ideas wordnet
- 4 Items for a rummage sale. British, uncountable
"Hire a stall at a fair or sell your wares at a car boot sale. Adjust your jumble's price to something very reasonable and attractive for people to buy. Your income will depend on the quality and quantity of the jumble […]"
- 5 small flat ring-shaped cake or cookie wordnet
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 A rummage sale. British, countable, informal
""That's a nice coat," said Bella. "I used to have one like that. Got it at a jumble. But it didn't suit me. You look great in it.""
- 7 a confused multitude of things wordnet
- 1 To mix or confuse. transitive
"Why dost thou blend and jumble such inconsistencies together?"
- 2 bring into random order wordnet
- 3 To meet or unite in a confused way. intransitive
"I tried to study, but in my half-awake state, all of the concepts seemed to jumble together."
- 4 assemble without order or sense wordnet
- 5 be all mixed up or jumbled together wordnet
Example
More examples"After Tom died, Mary found the house filled with a jumble of newspapers, children's toys and old holiday decorations. With stoic determination, Mary began to unjumble the attic contents before she put the rest of the house in order."
Etymology
From Middle English jumbelen, alteration of jumbren, jombren, a variant of jumpren, frequentative of jumpen (“to jump”), equal to jump + -le. More at jumber, jump, jumper.
Related phrases
More for "jumble"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.