jumble

UK/ˈd͡ʒʌmbəl/US/ˈd͡ʒʌmbəl/

nounB2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,850 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: jumbles

A jumble is an untidy mixture of unrelated things. A jumble of papers, in a jumble, a jumble sale.

A jumble sale is the British name for a sale of donated second-hand goods, usually for charity, and it is called a rummage sale in America. As a verb, to jumble is to mix things up so that no order remains.

Definitions of jumble

1nounjumbleAn untidy mixture of unrelated things.B2
“The drawer was a jumble of old keys, batteries and broken pens.”

jumble is a mixture.

Where it comes from

Middle English jumbelen, of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of confused movement.

Middle English
jumbelen
English, today
jumble

Built from

jumpen · Middle English — to jump

From Middle English jumbelen, alteration of jumbren, jombren, a variant of jumpren, frequentative of jumpen (“to jump”), equal to jump + le. More at jumber, jump, jumper.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

jumble in the wild

Devices that use jumble-wound coils include small electric motors, and some types of choke inductors.
Jumble winding
Ione holds a jumble sale in the village to buy a bullock for farmers in India who are dying.
The Other Darker Ned
By the 18th century, jumbles were being eaten in America where they took on the spelling jumbles and evolved into a crispy butter cookie.
Jumble (cookie)
The same decline of the jumble was described in the UK by the early 20th century, and by the 1990s jumbles were described as "almost extinct".
Jumble (cookie)
After becoming stuck in place, the loosened pieces of ice refreeze irregularly, causing a rough, or jumbled, surface.
Jumble ice

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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