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PlainSpell

hump

/hʌmp/noun, verb

hump is spelled H-U-M-P: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 18,064th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Hump, the name). As a noun, hump means “A mound of earth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hump is humps.

How many letters and syllables are in hump?

Letters4: H-U-M-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.3 times per million words; the 18,064th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is hump?

Hump appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 18,064th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Hump, the name.

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

How do you pronounce hump?

  • /hʌmp/
  • [hɐmp]

Hump 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-us-hump.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with hump?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hump.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: phum.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of hump

  • humps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • humping participle, present
  • humped participle, past

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

What does hump mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A mound of earth.

  2. 2

    A speed bump or speed hump.

  3. 3

    A deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine.

  4. 4

    A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.

  5. 5

    slangvulgarAn act of sexual intercourse.

  6. 6

    UKslangA bad mood.

    She's got the hump with me.

  7. 7

    slangA painfully boorish person.

    That guy is such a hump!

  8. 8

    A wave that forms in front of an operating hovercraft and impedes progress at low speeds.

verb

  1. 1

    To bend something into a hump.

  2. 2

    To carry (something), especially with some exertion.

  3. 3

    slangvulgarTo dry-hump.

    Stop humping the table, you sicko.

  4. 4

    slangvulgarTo have sex (with).

  5. 5

    USdatedslangTo exert oneself; to make an effort.

    Lessons are keeping me humping now, and will probably do so all summer.

  6. 6

    datedslangTo vex or annoy.

  7. 7

    To shunt wagons / freight cars over the hump in a hump yard.

  8. 8

    UKobsoleteslangTo botch or spoil.

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

Hump in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbosse (mound of earth), sauterie, baise (slang: act of sexual intercourse), cafard (bad mood), arrondir (to bend something into a hump), trimballer (to carry something, especially with some…)
GermanHügel (mound of earth), Bums (slang: act of sexual intercourse), Buckel (deformity of the human back), Höcker (rounded fleshy mass as in camel's back), Trottel, Trampel (slang: painfully boorish person)
Portuguesemonte, montículo (mound of earth), trepada (slang: act of sexual intercourse), mau humor (bad mood), corcunda (deformity of the human back), corcova (rounded fleshy mass as in camel's back)
Spanishcogida, polvo (slang: act of sexual intercourse), joroba, corcova (deformity of the human back), giba (rounded fleshy mass as in camel's back), montar (to rhythmically thrust the pelvis)

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 hump come from?

Probably borrowed from Dutch homp (“hump, lump”) or Middle Low German hump (“heap, hill, stump”), from Old Saxon *hump (“hill, heap, thick piece”), from Proto-Germanic *humpaz (“hip, height”), from Proto-Indo-European *kumb- (“curved”). Compare Proto-Germanic *huppōną (“to hop”), from Proto-Indo-European *kewb-, *ḱewb- (unnasalised root), and English hub (a softened variant without nasal?).

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

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