Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

humba

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: hum-ba
IPA

12

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

2

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Filipino braised pork dish from the Philippines especially popular in the Visayas, traditionally made with fatty cuts of pork belly slow-cooked until very tender in soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves, and fermented black beans (tausi) sweetened with muscovado sugar, and also commonly including hard-boiled eggs and banana blossoms.

Uncountable

Example Sentences

"A most sought-after “correct” humba has the skin jelly-soft, with the fork-tender meat swimming in its own fat."
"On the a la carte menu are braised pork shank with pineapple-soy sauce, humba and several pansit-based dishes."
"There’s no need to make adobo first to taste a delicious humba!"
"Maria Polotan’s Humba / “I learned how to make humba from my mom, who learned it from her mom. My mom came from Visayas in the Philippines, where the dish is really popular.[…]”"
"Commonly used as a dipping sauce or marinade, it [toyo] enhances various dishes like bistek tagalog and pork humbas."

Etymology

From Cebuano humba and Tagalog humba, from Hokkien 封肉 (hong-bah, “braised (pork) meat”).

Word Breakdown

Root: humba, 封肉

Usage

Uncountable

Inflected Forms

humbas (plural) hong ma (alternative) hongma (alternative)

Questions

What does humba mean?: A Filipino braised pork dish from the Philippines especially popular in the Visayas, traditionally made with fatty cuts of pork belly slow-cooked until very tender in soy sauce, vinegar, peppercorns, garlic, bay leaves, and fermented black beans (tausi) sweetened with muscovado sugar, and also commonly including hard-boiled eggs and banana blossoms.
Where does humba come from?: From Cebuano humba and Tagalog humba, from Hokkien 封肉 (hong-bah, “braised (pork) meat”).

How to pronounce humba

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “humba”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “humba”.
Repeat and practice — Say “humba” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.