slump
/slʌmp/verb, noun
slump is spelled S-L-U-M-P: 5 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). As a verb, slump means “To collapse heavily or helplessly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in slump?
| Letters | 5: S-L-U-M-P |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.3 times per million words; the 18,064th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 slump?
Slump appears 2.3 times per million words in written English, the 18,064th 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 slump?
- /slʌmp/
Slump 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-slump.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of slump
- slumps present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- slumping participle, present
- slumped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does slump mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To collapse heavily or helplessly.
Exhausted, he slumped down onto the sofa.
- 2
To decline or fall off in activity or performance.
Real estate prices slumped during the recession.
- 3
To slouch or droop.
- 4
To lump; to throw together messily.
- 5
To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
- 6
slangTo cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unconscious; to kill.
noun
- 1
A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
- 2
slangA period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating.
- 3
A period of poor performance.
If she doesn't pull out of her slump, her job may be in jeopardy.
- 4
A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
- 5
A form of mass wasting in which a coherent mass of loosely consolidated materials or a rock layer moves a short distance down a slope.
- 6
A crater or depression (an area where the ground slumps) which forms as a result of such wasting. (A large crater is colloquially called a megaslump.)
- 7
UKA boggy place.
- 8
ScotlandThe noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Slump in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | s'affaler, s'effondrer |
| German | absinken, zusammensacken, zusammenbrechen , Zusammenbruch, Zusammenfall, Kollaps |
| Portuguese | despencar |
| Spanish | desfallecer, desplomarse , bajón, desfallecimiento, caída, desplome |
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 slump come from?
Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Norwegian slumpa (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“randomize; to sell off”), Swedish slump (“chance, randomness, happenstance”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”), dialectal Dutch slompen (“to walk clumsily”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).