''mondo'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''mondo'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606151242-00-⌔

mondo - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

mondo (plural mondos)

• (Zen Buddhism) A dialogue between master and student designed to obtain an intuitive truth.

Adjective

mondo (comparative more mondo, superlative most mondo)

• (US, slang) Big, large; major, significant.
  • ✤ […] I mean, me bein’here has caused us some mondo problems, so I shoulda figured out that not bein’ here anymore would cause some more problems — ”¹
  • ✤ Younger gorgeous woman marries older, rich man, lives her life solely for him while reaping the bennies of mondo moolah only to end up dumped by older rich man for newer, younger model.²
  • ✤ “You’re kidding—you can eat again after that mondo burger you had for lunch?”³
  • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mondo.

Adverb

mondo (not comparable)

• (US, slang) Very, extremely, really.
  • ✤ “This rain is mondo depressing,” Sam sighed as she stared out the sliding glass doors that led to the Hewitts’ deck.⁴
  • ✤ This recipe, from someone who really knows her tiramisu, is mondo rich, utterly divine, and simple.⁵
  • ✤ “Hey, this place is mondo cool. Bowie hangs out there. It’s so packed you can hardly get in. And they play industrial out of one set of speakers and the Sex Pistols out of the other. I mean in the same room! Like, at a thousand decibels.”⁶
  • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mondo.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australian): 🔊

Etymology 1

From Japanese 問答 (mondō).

Etymology 2

From the title of the 1962 Italian cult documentary film Mondo cane, Italian for “A Dog’s World”, from mondo (“world”) and cane (“dog”). The film featured bizarre scenes, leading to English use of mondo as an adverb meaning “very, extremely” in mock-Italian phrases like mondo bizarro.⁷ Doublet of monde.

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1997, K. C. Constantine, Family Values, G. K. Hall & Co., published 1997, →ISBN, page 80: ↩

2. 2010, Dakota Cassidy, You Dropped a Blonde on Me ‎${}^{[1]}$, Berkley Sensation, published 2010, →ISBN: ↩

3. 2012, Lucienne Diver, Crazy in the Blood, Samhain Publishing, Ltd., published 2012, →ISBN, page 79: ↩

4. 1992, Cherie Bennett, Sunset Paradise, Berkley, published 1992, →ISBN, page 1: ↩

5. 2001, Margie Lapanja, Food Men Love: All-Time Favorite Recipes from Caesar Salad and Grilled Rib-Eye to Cinnamon Buns and Apple Pie, Conari Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 196: ↩

6. 2002, Jeffrey Deaver, Mistress of Justice, Bantam Books, published 2002, →ISBN, page 93: ↩

7. “mondo” on thefreedictionary.com ↩

Link to original

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