Lumps

How to spell lumps

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lumps

What does lumps mean?

1. nounCompact, irregular masses of a solid substance, or small swellings.
2. verbGroups several different things together as a single category, often carelessly.

Lumps in a sentence

• noun

  Stir the custard well so that no lumps remain.

• verb

  The report lumps travel and lodging into one figure.

• noun

  She felt two hard lumps in the old mattress.

• verb

  He always lumps every expense under a single heading.

Where does lumps come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word "lump" first appears in Middle English in the 1300s, describing a compact, shapeless mass of something. Its exact source is uncertain, but it is generally traced to a Germanic origin, with close relatives in Middle Dutch "lompe", meaning a piece of cloth or a rag, and in related Scandinavian forms used for a clod or chunk. The word seems to have carried the idea of a clumsy, swollen, or unshaped piece, which is why an awkward person could once be called a "lump" and why we still speak of a "lump" in the throat. The plural and verb form simply adds the -s ending, and because the word is short and entirely phonetic, the spelling has stayed remarkably stable over the centuries. There is no silent letter or doubled consonant to trip up a writer, which keeps it among the more straightforward words to spell.

How the word is built

• lump (a compact shapeless mass)
• -s (plural / third-person verb)