gumbo

1. 1.

   any of various fine-grained silty soils that become waxy and very sticky mud when saturated with water

   Synonymsgumbo soil

   Broadersoil
2. 2.

   tall coarse annual of Old World tropics widely cultivated in southern United States and West Indies for its long mucilaginous green pods used as basis for soups and stews; sometimes placed in genus Hibiscus

   Synonymsokraokra plantlady's-fingerAbelmoschus esculentusHibiscus esculentus

   Broaderherb

   Part ofAbelmoschus

   Partsokra
3. 3.

   long mucilaginous green pods; may be simmered or sauteed but used especially in soups and stews

   Synonymsokra

   Broadervegetable

   Part ofokra
4. 4.

   a soup or stew thickened with okra pods

   Broadersoup

Other forms of gumbo

plural

gumboes·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about gumbo

What does gumbo mean?

gumbo means "any of various fine-grained silty soils that become waxy and very sticky mud when saturated with water". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in gumbo?

gumbo has 2 syllables: gum-bo. The stress falls on "gum". In IPA it is /ˈɡʌmboʊ/.

What is another word for gumbo?

Close synonyms include gumbo soil, okra, okra plant, lady's-finger, Abelmoschus esculentus. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is gumbo a common word?

gumbo is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.