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PlainSpell

tummy

/ˈtʌ.mi/noun

tummy is a noun meaning “The stomach or belly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-U-M-M-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears 2.7 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of tummy is tummies.

What does tummy mean?

noun

  1. 1

    colloquialThe stomach or belly.

  2. 2

    UScolloquialslangA protruding belly, paunch.

  3. 3

    colloquialIn reference to where a baby is carried, the abdomen, or specifically the womb, especially of a woman, but also of animals in general (usually mammals).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce tummy?

  • /ˈtʌ.mi/

Tummy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-tummy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of tummy

  • tummies plural
  • tummie rare

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is tummy?

Tummy appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Tummy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbidon (childish language for stomach)
GermanBäuchlein (childish language for stomach), Bauch (belly)
Spanishbidón (childish language for stomach), barriga, barriguita, bola (belly)
Portuguesebarriga (belly)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does tummy come from?

Imitating a child's attempt to say stomach, via archaic colloquialism stummy. Compare twee and pasghetti for similar phonetic reductions.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).