# dummy

/ˈdəmi/ (US) · /dˈʌmi/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/dummy
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. a model of a person

noun · CEFR B1

a model that looks like a person, used for displaying clothes or in safety tests.

For teachers: a physical representation of a human being, often used for garment display or as a proxy in crash testing.

- The shop window had a dummy wearing a bright red winter coat.
- Engineers placed a crash-test dummy in the driver's seat to measure the impact of the collision on a human frame.

### 2. a stupid person

noun · CEFR B2 · Informal

an insulting word for someone you think is stupid.

For teachers: a pejorative term for a person perceived as unintelligent or slow-witted.

- I felt like such a dummy when I realized I had my shirt on backwards.
- He was tired of being treated like a dummy by his colleagues just because he lacked a formal degree.

### 3. a baby's pacifier

noun · CEFR B1 · British English

a rubber or plastic object that a baby sucks on to stay calm.

For teachers: a rubber or silicone teat given to an infant to soothe them through the sucking reflex.

- The baby stopped crying as soon as his mother gave him his dummy.
- Pediatricians often debate the long-term effects of prolonged dummy use on a child's dental development.

### 4. a fake move in sports

noun · CEFR B2

a move where you pretend to pass or kick the ball to trick the other team.

For teachers: a deceptive move or feint intended to mislead an opponent regarding one's next action.

- The striker sold the defender a dummy and ran straight toward the goal.
- By selling the goalkeeper a dummy, the forward created enough space to slot the ball into the bottom corner.

### 5. a placeholder

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a fake object or word used temporarily until the real one is ready.

For teachers: a non-functional or placeholder element used in place of a functional one for testing or structural purposes.

- The designer used dummy text to see how the layout would look.
- The programmer inserted a dummy variable to ensure the function would compile while the database was still offline.

Usage: Often used as an attributive noun, as in 'dummy variable' or 'dummy text'.

### 6. grammar placeholder

noun · CEFR C2 · Academic · Technical

a word like 'it' or 'there' that fills a space in a sentence but has no real meaning.

For teachers: an expletive or pleonastic word that serves a purely structural role in a sentence without carrying semantic content.

- In the sentence 'It is raining', the word 'it' is a dummy subject.
- The use of a dummy auxiliary, such as 'do' in English questions, is a distinctive feature of the language's syntax.

### 7. to create a prototype

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to make a simple, fake version of something to show how it will work.

For teachers: to create a mock-up or non-functional prototype of a product or document.

- We need to dummy up the book cover before we send it to the printer.
- The architects dummied up a cardboard model to demonstrate the scale of the atrium to the investors.

### 8. extremely

adverb · CEFR C1 · American English · Slang

a slang word used to mean 'very' or 'extremely'.

For teachers: an intensifier used to emphasize the degree of an adjective.

- That new video game is dummy hard to beat.
- The concert was dummy loud, and my ears were ringing for hours afterward.

## Examples

- The shop window has a dummy wearing a red coat.
- The engineers used a crash-test dummy to see how the car would handle a collision.
- While the critics dismissed him as a mere dummy for the political party's interests, he eventually proved to have a sophisticated agenda of his own.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.