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PlainSpell

dump

/dʌmp/noun, verb

dump is spelled D-U-M-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, dump means “A place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of dump is dumps.

How many letters and syllables are in dump?

Letters4: D-U-M-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is dump?

Dump appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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).

How do you pronounce dump?

  • /dʌmp/
  • [dɐm̥p]

Dump has one syllable (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_ck1_dump.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of dump

  • dumps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • dumping participle, present
  • dumped participle, past

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

What does dump mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.

    a toxic waste dump

  2. 2

    A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.

  3. 3

    That which is dumped, especially in a chaotic way; a mess.

  4. 4

    A disorganized collection of images posted on social media.

  5. 5

    An act of dumping, or its result.

    The new XML dump is coming soon.

  6. 6

    A formatted listing of the contents of program storage, especially when produced automatically by a failing program.

  7. 7

    A storage place for supplies, especially military.

    an ammo dump

  8. 8

    slangAn unpleasant, dirty, disreputable, unfashionable, boring, or depressing looking place.

    This place looks like a dump.

  9. 9

    A deep hole in a river bed; a pool.

  10. 10

    UKarchaicA thick, ill-shapen piece.

  11. 11

    UKarchaicA lead counter used in the game of chuck-farthing.

verb

  1. 1

    To release, especially in large quantities and chaotic manner.

  2. 2

    To discard; to get rid of something one no longer wants.

  3. 3

    To sell below cost or very cheaply; to engage in dumping.

  4. 4

    To copy (data) from a system to another place or system, usually in order to archive it.

    to dump the ROM from a rare Nintendo game cartridge

  5. 5

    To output the contents of storage or a data structure, often in order to diagnose a bug.

  6. 6

    informalTo end a romantic relationship with.

    Sarah dumped Nelson after finding out he was cheating on her.

  7. 7

    ScotlandobsoleteTo knock heavily; to stump.

  8. 8

    To put or throw down with more or less of violence; hence, to unload from a cart by tilting it

    We dumped the coal onto the fireplace.

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

Dump in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchdécharge, dépotoir (a place where waste or garbage is left), se débarrasser de (to discard, to get rid of), larguer, domper (to end a relationship)
GermanKippe, Müllkippe, Deponie (a place where waste or garbage is left), loswerden, entsorgen (to discard, to get rid of), freisetzen (to release)
Portugueseaterro, lixão (a place where waste or garbage is left), jogar fora, descartar (to discard, to get rid of), terminar (to end a relationship), largar (to release)
Spanishbasural, basurero, botadero, tiradero, vertedero (a place where waste or garbage is left), antro (an unpleasant, dirty, disreputable…)

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 dump come from?

From Middle English dumpen, dompen, probably from Old Norse dumpa (“to thump”) (whence Danish dumpe (“to fall suddenly”)), of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of falling, similar to thump.

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

What to look up after dump