Meanings
mumps1
- pluralplural onlymedicineA contagious disease caused by the Mumps virus of the genus Rubulavirus, mostly occurring in childhood, which causes swelling of glands in the face and neck.
At issue is the so-called MMR vaccine, which immunizes children against measles, mumps and rubella, three potentially deadly diseases that were once common and have been mostly wiped out.
2002 February 10, Sarah Lyall, “Britain Tries to Quell Fear Over Vaccine for Children”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 14 Feb 2021
- indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of mump
- pluralplural of mump
MUMPS2
- abbreviationacronymAcronym of Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System, a programming language (and database) developed originally to be specifically for hierarchically arranged records, such as medical records.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounan acute contagious viral disease characterized by fever and by swelling of the parotid glands
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Circa 1600, from mump (“grimace”, noun), compare mump (verb), most likely referring to the painful difficulty in swallowing.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Afrikaans pampoentjies
- pampoentjiescontagious disease
Arabic نُكَاف
- نُكَاف (nukāf)contagious disease
Basque hazizurri
- hazizurricontagious disease
Bulgarian заушка
- заушка (zauška)contagious disease
Chinese Mandarin 腮腺炎
- 腮腺炎 (sāixiànyán)contagious disease
Czech příušnice
- příušnicecontagious disease
Dutch bof
- bofcontagious disease
Esperanto mumpso
- mumpsocontagious disease
Estonian mumps
- mumpscontagious disease
Finnish sikotauti
- sikotauticontagious disease
French oreillons
- oreillonscontagious disease
German Mumps, Ziegenpeter
- Mumpscontagious disease
- Ziegenpetercontagious disease
- Mumpfcontagious disease
Greek παρωτίτιδα, μαγουλάδες
- παρωτίτιδα (parotítida)contagious disease
- μαγουλάδες (magouládes)contagious disease
Hebrew חַזֶּרֶת
- חַזֶּרֶת (khazéret)contagious disease
Hungarian mumpsz
- mumpszcontagious disease
Indonesian beguk
- begukcontagious disease
Italian parotite epidemica, orecchioni
- parotite epidemicacontagious disease
- orecchionicontagious disease
Japanese 流行性耳下腺炎, おたふく 風邪
- 流行性耳下腺炎 (ryūkōsei jikasen'en)contagious disease
- おたふく 風邪 (otafuku kaze)contagious disease
Korean 볼거리
- 볼거리 (bolgeori)contagious disease
Lithuanian kiaulytė
- kiaulytėcontagious disease
Māori mate pupuhi repe, repe hūware pupuhi
- mate pupuhi repecontagious disease
- repe hūware pupuhicontagious disease
Norwegian kusma
- kusmacontagious disease
Persian اوریون
- اوریون (oreyon)contagious disease
Polish świnka
- świnkacontagious disease
Portuguese parotidite epidémica, papeira
- parotidite epidémicacontagious disease
- papeiracontagious disease
- caxumbacontagious disease
Romanian oreion
- oreioncontagious disease
Russian зау́шница, сви́нка
- зау́шница (zaúšnica)contagious disease
- сви́нка (svínka)contagious disease
Scottish Gaelic a' phluc, a' phloic
- a' phluccontagious disease
- a' phloiccontagious disease
Slovak mumps
- mumpscontagious disease
Spanish paperas, parotiditis
- paperascontagious disease
- parotiditiscontagious disease
Swedish parotit, påssjuka
- parotitcontagious disease
- påssjukacontagious disease
Tagalog beke, buklaw
- bekecontagious disease
- buklawcontagious disease
Turkish kabakulak
- kabakulakcontagious disease
Ukrainian сви́нка, заву́шниця
- сви́нка (svýnka)contagious disease
- заву́шниця (zavúšnycja)contagious disease
Vietnamese quai bị, chàm bàm
- quai bịcontagious disease
- chàm bàmcontagious disease
Welsh clwy'r pennau, twymyn doben
- clwy'r pennaucontagious disease
- twymyn dobencontagious disease
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with mumps
All rhymes →Cite this entry
mumps. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mumps
“mumps.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mumps. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mumps,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mumps.
Source: mumps on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.