Jumps

How to spell jumps

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce jumps

What does jumps mean?

1. verbSprings off the ground or moves suddenly (third-person singular present).
2. nounMore than one leap or sudden movement upward or forward.

Jumps in a sentence

• verb

  The dog jumps over the low garden wall every morning.

• noun

  The horse cleared all twelve jumps in the show ring without a fault.

• verb

  She always jumps to the wrong conclusion before hearing the facts.

• noun

  The gymnast practised her jumps until each landing was perfect.

Where does jumps come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

The base word jump appears suddenly in English in the early 1500s, with no clear ancestor before that, which makes its origin genuinely uncertain. Many scholars think it began as an imitative or echoic word, the sort of short, punchy sound that suggests a sudden bounce or thud, much like bump, thump, and stump, all of which share that abrupt -ump shape. It quickly took on the meaning of springing off the ground using the legs, and from there spread to mean any sudden movement, rise, or skip from one point to another. The form jumps simply adds the regular -s ending, used both for the present tense with he, she, or it, and for the plural of the noun. Because the spelling is short and entirely phonetic, the only thing to watch is the simple -s ending rather than any tricky combination.

How the word is built

• jump (to leap)
• -s (third-person singular / plural marker)