Join free

mung

English

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.

mung¹

  • /mʌŋ/
  • /muːŋ/

Rhymes with -ʌŋ

Where it comes from

From Hindi मूँग (mūṅg), from Sanskrit मुद्ग (mudga).

noun mungs · mongo · moongo · moong · munge · mungo

  1. countable, uncountable mung bean (Vigna radiata, syn. Phaseolus aureus), cultivated for its sprouts.

mung²

  • /mʌŋ/ US

Rhymes with -ʌŋ

Where it comes from

Often doubtfully explained as mash until no good, or a self-referencing (recursive) acronym, mung until no good. Rumored to have originated from one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer groups in the 1970s or 1980s. Potentially related to mangle.

verb mungs · munging · munged · munge · mongo

  1. informal To make repeated changes to a file or data which individually may be reversible, yet which ultimately result in an unintentional irreversible destruction of large portions of the original data.
  2. broadly, informal To harm, to damage; to destroy.

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

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

APA

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

Chicago

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

BibTeX
@misc{mung_2026,
  title = {mung},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mung},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}