variants
or less commonly zombi
1
a
: a will-less and speechless human (as in voodoo belief and in fictional stories) held to have died and been supernaturally reanimated
b
: the supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body
2
a
: a person held to resemble the so-called walking dead
especially
: automaton
b
: a person markedly strange in appearance or behavior
3
: a mixed drink made of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice
zombielike
adjective
or zombie-like
… a morning rush of zombielike office workers, all starved for caffeine and clamoring for cappuccino.
—
Bob Filipczak
Bob Filipczak
zomboid
adjective
This is a poetry eerily populated with ghosts and mummies and zomboid creatures who go on living though dead from love.
—Patrick McGarth
Patrick McGarth
Examples of zombie in a Sentence
If I don't go to bed early I'll be a zombie tomorrow.
His students usually sat there in the classroom like zombies.
Recent Examples on the Web
Ware, a young boy at an arts festival called the Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon, had just gotten his face painted like a zombie.
—Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 4 Apr. 2026
Ware, in full zombie face paint at Portland’s Rose Festival, was approached by a local news reporter after getting his face painted.
—Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2026
They will be joined by a slate of new additions – Luna Maya, Bryan Domani, Shindy Huang, Myesha Lin and Derby Romero – who play fresh characters entering the story’s zombie-survival universe.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 3 Apr. 2026
Back in 2022, the mom of three shared a sweet image of the pair dressing up as zombies for Halloween by wearing scary makeup.
—Gina Kalsi, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for zombie
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Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 4 Apr. 2026
Ware, in full zombie face paint at Portland’s Rose Festival, was approached by a local news reporter after getting his face painted.
—Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2026
They will be joined by a slate of new additions – Luna Maya, Bryan Domani, Shindy Huang, Myesha Lin and Derby Romero – who play fresh characters entering the story’s zombie-survival universe.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 3 Apr. 2026
Back in 2022, the mom of three shared a sweet image of the pair dressing up as zombies for Halloween by wearing scary makeup.
—Gina Kalsi, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for zombie
Cite this Entry
“Zombie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zombie. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
zombie
noun
zom·bie
variants
also zombi
: a person who is believed to have died and been brought back to life without speech or free will
Etymology
Louisiana Creole or Haitian Creole zonbi, of Bantu origin
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