mungo

Mungo is a term used in several unrelated contexts. In botany and cooking, it refers to legumes commonly called mungo beans or mung beans, including the black gram (often called mungo or urad) and the green mung bean. These crops are widely cultivated in Asia and are used in soups, stews, and sprouted dishes. The precise usage of the word varies by language and region.

Mungo National Park is in New South Wales, Australia, and contains Lake Mungo, a dry lake bed within the Willandra Valley. The area preserves some of the earliest evidence of modern human occupation in Australia, including the remains known as Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, which date to tens of thousands of years ago. The Willandra Lakes region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Outside geography, Mungo is used as a personal name. It appears in Scottish and other European naming traditions. Notable people include Mungo Park (1771–1806), a Scottish explorer of West Africa, and Mungo Jerry, a British band best known for the 1970s hit In the Summertime. The word also appears in various cultural references and place names around the world.