Meanings
plural dumplings
- A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.
- mildlyvulgarA piece of excrement.
2018 Brent Butt as Brent Herbert Leroy, "Sasquatch Your Language", Corner Gas Animated Wherever legitimate tracks are found there's always some fresh scat, y'know, poo, flop, dumplings.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin: * perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)), * or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans kluitjie
- kluitjiefood
Arabic دَامْبْلِنْغ
- دَامْبْلِنْغ (dāmblinḡ)food
Bulgarian кне́дла, дундьо
- кне́дла (knédla)food
- дундьо (dundjo)term of endearment
Catalan mandonguilla, nyoqui
- mandonguillafood
- nyoquifood
Chinese Cantonese 餃子 /饺子
- 餃子 /饺子 (gaau² zi²)food
Chinese Mandarin 餃子 /饺子
- 餃子 /饺子 (jiǎozi)food
Czech knedlík, haluška
- knedlíkfood
- haluškafood
Danish dumpling
- dumplingfood
Dutch knoedel
- knoedelfood
Esperanto knedliko, pastobulo
- knedlikofood
- pastobulofood
Estonian klimp
- klimpfood
Finnish nyytti, taikinanyytti
- nyyttifood
- taikinanyyttifood
- mykyfood
- kultamussukkaterm of endearment
French quenelle, ravioli
- quenellefood
- raviolifood
- chouterm of endearment
German Knödel, Kloß
- Knödelfood
- Kloßfood
- Klopsfood
Hindi गुलगुला
- गुलगुला (gulgulā)food
Hungarian galuska, nokedli
- galuskafood
- nokedlifood
- gombócfood
Icelandic bögglar, deigboltar
- bögglarfood
- deigboltarfood
Italian gnocco, raviolo
- gnoccofood
- raviolofood
Japanese 餃子, ギョーザ
- 餃子 (gyōza)food
- ギョーザ (gyōza)food
Korean 만두, 교자
- 만두 (mandu)food
- 교자 (gyoja)food
- 펠메니 (pelmeni)food
Latin globulus, offa
- globulusfood
- offafood
Latvian ķiļķens, klimpa
- ķiļķensfood
- klimpafood
Lithuanian kukulis, gružulis
- kukulisfood
- gružulisfood
- kankolasfood
- apskritainisfood
Māori motumotu, pokenga kinikini
- motumotufood
- pokenga kinikinifood
Norwegian Bokmål melbolle, mjølbolle (unfilled flour-based dumpling)
- melbollefood
- mjølbolle (unfilled flour-based dumpling)food
Persian منتو, دامبلینگ
- منتو (mantu)food
- دامبلینگ (dâmpling)food
Polish pieróg, pierożek
- pierógfood
- pierożekterm of endearment
Portuguese bolinho, docinho
- bolinhofood
- docinhoterm of endearment
Russian пельме́нь, клёцка
- пельме́нь (pelʹménʹ)food
- клёцка (kljócka)food
- галу́шка (galúška)food
- манты́ (mantý)food
- манту́ (mantú)food
- маньто́у (manʹtóu)food
- пы́шечка (pýšečka)term of endearment
- пы́шка (pýška)term of endearment
Slovak knedľa, haluška
- knedľafood
- haluškafood
Spanish dumpling (damplin/domplin)
- dumpling (damplin/domplin)food
Swedish klimp, knyte
- klimpfood
- knytefood
- dumplingfood
- pirogfood
Thai เกี๊ยว
- เกี๊ยว (gíao)food
Turkish mantı
- mantıfood
Ukrainian варе́ник, галу́шка
- варе́ник (varényk)food
- галу́шка (halúška)food
- пирі́г (pyríh)food
- ву́шко (vúško)food
- пампу́шечка (pampúšečka)term of endearment
- пампу́шка (pampúška)term of endearment
Vietnamese mằn thắn, vằn thắn
- mằn thắnfood
- vằn thắnfood
- hoành thánhfood
Yiddish קניידל
- קניידל (kneydl)food
Cite this entry
dumpling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dumpling
“dumpling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dumpling. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dumpling,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dumpling.
Source: dumpling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.