zombie
zom·bie/ˈzɑmbi/noun
zombie is spelled Z-O-M-B-I-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (zom·bie). It appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, zombie means “A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his or her own, typically being slow, obedient, and…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of zombie is zombies.
How many letters and syllables are in zombie?
| Letters | 6: Z-O-M-B-I-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: zom·bie |
| In writing | 8.7 times per million words; the 7,797th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 zombie?
Zombie appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th 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 zombie?
- UK /ˈzɒmbi/
- US /ˈzɑmbi/
Zombie has 2 syllables, split zom·bie in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-zombie.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with zombie?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as zombie from its last stressed vowel (/ɑmbi/):
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 zombie
- zombies plural
- zombi
- zomby
- zumbi
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does zombie mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A person, usually undead, animated by unnatural forces (such as magic), with no soul or will of his or her own, typically being slow, obedient, and harmless unless directed to be harmful.
- 2
A dead person, reanimated through some fictional agency as a fungus, virus, or the like, that has an insatiable desire to eat living humans, typically depicted as aggressive, fast moving, and infectious.
- 3
An apathetic or slow-witted person.
- 4
A human being in a state of extreme mental exhaustion.
After working for 18 hours on the computer, I was a zombie.
- 5
Someone or something that should be dead but is not.
- 6
An information worker who has signed a nondisclosure agreement.
- 7
A process or task which has terminated but has not been removed from the list of processes, typically because it has an unresponsive parent process.
- 8
A computer affected by malware which causes it to do whatever the attacker wants it to do without the user's knowledge.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Zombie in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the undead:
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 zombie come from?
First attested in the 18th century. Partially through Louisiana Creole zombi (“zombie; ghost”), Haitian Creole zonbi (“zombie”), and French zombi (“zombie”). Ultimately from a Bantu language. Compare Kongo nzambi (“god”), zumbi (“fetish”), and Kimbundu nzumbi (“ghost”) (see Portuguese zumbi, Sranan Tongo dyumbi), and Caribbean folklore's jumbie (“a spirit or demon”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).