Join free

mulligan

English · Français · Deutsch · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

mulligan¹

  • /ˈmʌlɪɡən/

Sounds like Mulligan

Where it comes from

Attested since the 1930s in the sense “chance to re-take a golf stroke”; probably from the name Mulligan, after a golfer who replayed a stroke. See Wikipedia for more information.

noun mulligans

  1. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of mulligan stew "I've got a mulligan on the stove upstairs," grinned Sloan, getting out of his chair.
  2. countable, uncountable An unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry. If you lose your drive in the water, take a mulligan and try again.
  3. countable, uncountable An opportunity (sometimes penalized) for a player to reshuffle their cards and draw a new initial hand at the beginning of a game. Pokemon has a mulligan rule: if you have no Pokemon in your opening hand, you show it to your opponent and redraw. You may also take a mulligan, I believe, if your opening hand has no basic power cards.
  4. broadly, countable, uncountable A second chance. Don't do poorly in your first interview; you won't get a mulligan.

Mulligan²

  • /ˈmʌlɪɡən/

Sounds like mulligan

Where it comes from

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Maolagáin, from maolagán (“person with cropped hair”), from maol (“bald”).

proper noun Mulligans · Mullican

  1. A surname from Irish.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: mulligan stew, irish burgoo, stew, gimme, life, pull, putt, like, muggins, half-one, honor, putting, texas wedge, turn, triple bogey, lurch

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"mulligan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mulligan. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mulligan. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mulligan

Chicago

"mulligan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mulligan.

BibTeX
@misc{mulligan_2026,
  title = {mulligan},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mulligan},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}