mummery
/ˈmʌməɹi/noun
mummery is a noun meaning “A ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, formerly especially of a religious nature; extravagant or hypocritical performance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-U-M-M-E-R-Y, and it appears about once in every 13 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mummery is mummeries.
What does mummery mean?
noun
- 1
archaicMumming; disguising oneself to perform as a mummer, or to take part in some other festivities or performance.
- 2
A ridiculous or ostentatious ceremony, formerly especially of a religious nature; extravagant or hypocritical performance.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mummery?
- /ˈmʌməɹi/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mummery.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mummery
- mummeries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mummery?
Mummery appears about once in every 13 million words in written English, the 109,062nd 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).
Mummery in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense mummer's performance:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mommerie |
| German | Mummerei |
| Spanish | mojiganga |
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 mummery come from?
From Middle French momerie, mommerie, from Old French mommer, from momon. By surface analysis, mummer + -y.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).