mambo

See also: Mambo

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

mambo

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Haitian Creole manbo (“voodoo priestess”) (ultimately from Yoruba mambo (“to talk”)), in later senses via Cuban Spanish mambo (“dance”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmæmbəʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) enPR: ʹmäm-bō, IPA^(key): /ˈmɑmboʊ/
• Rhymes: -æmbəʊ

Noun

mambo (countable and uncountable, plural mambos or mamboes)

1. A voodoo priestess (in Haiti) [from 20th c.]
   • 1985, Wade Davis, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Simon & Schuster, page 47:

     The mambo next presented a container of water to the cardinal points, then poured libations to the centerpost of the peristyle, the axis along which the spirits were to enter.

   • 1995, Karen McCarthy Brown, in Cosentino (ed.), Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, South Sea International Press 1998, p. 219:

     The manbo showed her how to take small handfuls of liquid and spread it on her skin always moving in the upward direction.

   • May 2018, Kyrah Malika Daniels, Whiteness in the Ancestral Waters: Race, Religion, and Conversion within North American Buddhism and Haitian Vodou, The Journal of Interreligious Studies, Issue 23:

     In the 1950s, Ukrainian American filmmaker Maya Deren traveled to Haiti and became initiated as a manbo (priestess) in Haitian Vodou.

2. A Latin-American musical genre, adapted from rumba, originating from Cuba in the 1940s, or a dance or rhythm of this genre. [from 20th c.]

Alternative forms

• (voodoo priestess) manbo

Derived terms

• horizontal mambo
• mambo sauce

Translations

Latin American music genre

Arabic: مَامْبُو m (mambū) Armenian: մամբո (hy) (mambo) Chinese: Cantonese: 曼波 (maan6 po1) Hokkien: 曼波 (bàn-boh) Mandarin: 曼波 (zh) (mànbō) Finnish: mambo (fi) French: mambo (fr) m German: Mambo m Greek: μάμπο (el) n (mámpo) Hindi: मम्बो (mambo), मैम्बो (maimbo) Italian: mambo (it) m Japanese: マンボ (manbo) Korean: 맘보 (mambo) Marathi: माम्बो n (māmbo) Portuguese: mambo (pt) m Russian: ма́мбо (ru) n (mámbo) Spanish: mambo (es) m Swedish: mambo (sv) c Thai: แมมโบ (maem-boh) Urdu: میمبو (maimbo)

Verb

mambo (third-person singular simple present mambos, present participle mamboing, simple past and past participle mamboed)

1. (intransitive) To perform this dance.

Translations

to dance

See also

• Mambo (music) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mambo (dance) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• bammo

Chuabo

Noun

mambo

1. chief, king

References

• Shrum, Jeff (2018), Chuwabo - Portuguese Dictionary‎, SIL International

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmambo]

Noun

mambo n

1. mambo (dance)

Declension

Declension of mambo (hard neuter reducible)

	singular	plural
nominative	mambo	mamba
genitive	mamba	mamb
dative	mambu	mambům
accusative	mambo	mamba
vocative	mambo	mamba
locative	mambu	mambech
instrumental	mambem	mamby

Further reading

• “mambo”, in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu (in Czech)

French

Etymology

From American & Cuban Spanish mambo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃.bo/

Noun

mambo m (plural mambos)

1. mambo (music)
2. mambo (dance)

Further reading

• “mambo”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

From American & Cuban Spanish mambo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmam.bo/
• Rhymes: -ambo
• Hyphenation: màm‧bo

Noun

mambo m (invariable)

1. mambo (dance and music)

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɐ̃.bu/

• Rhymes: -ɐ̃bu
• Hyphenation: mam‧bo

Etymology 1

From Kimbundu mambu.

Noun

mambo m (plural mambos)

1. (Angola, colloquial) thing

   Synonym: coisa

Etymology 2

From American & Cuban Spanish mambo.

Noun

mambo m (plural mambos)

1. mambo (music)
2. mambo (dance)

Further reading

• “mambo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2025
• “mambo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mambo or French mambo.

Noun

mambo n (plural mambouri)

1. mambo (music)

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	mambo	mamboul		mambouri	mambourile
genitive-dative	mambo	mamboului		mambouri	mambourilor
vocative	mamboule			mambourilor

Spanish

Etymology

From American Spanish, likely from Haitian Creole manbo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmambo/ [ˈmãm.bo]
• Rhymes: -ambo
• Syllabification: mam‧bo

Noun

mambo m (plural mambos)

1. mambo (music)
2. mambo (dance)

Further reading

• “mambo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

mambo

1. plural of jambo

Interjection

mambo

1. (colloquial) how are you?

Swedish

Etymology 1

Probably from Haitian Creole mambo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmambʊ/
• Rhymes: -ambʊ

Noun

mambo c

1. (dance) mambo; a type of Latin American dance

Declension

Declension of mambo

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	mambo	mambos
	definite	mambon	mambons
plural	indefinite	mambor	mambors
	definite	mamborna	mambornas

Etymology 2

Blend of mamma (“mum”) +‎ sambo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (sometimes proscribed) /ˈmambʊ/, /²mamˌbuː/

Noun

mambo c

1. (somewhat humorous) a person who still lives with their parents

Usage notes

• For notes on the pronunciation, see the usage notes under the entry sambo.

Declension

Declension of mambo

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	mambo	mambos
	definite	mambon	mambons
plural	indefinite	mambor	mambors
	definite	mamborna	mambornas

Related terms

• sambo
• särbo

References

• mambo in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• mambo in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Anagrams

• bomma