Bumpy

How to spell bumpy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bumpy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bumpy mean?

1. adjectiveHaving an uneven surface or causing a series of jolts and shakes.

Bumpy in a sentence

• The old farm track was so bumpy that the coffee spilled in the cup holder.

• Turbulence made the final hour of the flight quite bumpy.

Where does bumpy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word grows from 'bump', a noun and verb that appeared in English in the 1500s and is thought to be imitative, echoing the dull thudding sound of one solid thing knocking into another. From that base came the sense of a raised swelling left by a knock and, later, any small protrusion on a surface. Adding the everyday adjective suffix '-y', meaning 'full of' or 'marked by', produced 'bumpy' in the early 1800s to describe a surface covered with bumps or a ride full of jolts. Because the root ends in a single 'p' preceded by a short vowel, the spelling stays as a single 'p' before '-y', so the trap is simply resisting the urge to double the consonant. Its imitative origin links it to a small family of blunt, thudding words such as 'thump' and 'lump'.

How the word is built

• bump (a raised lump or jolt)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, characterised by)