Added 4 October 2026
mushroom
/ˈmʌʃˌɹuːm/ noun
In Latin: fungus, bōlētus Wiktionary
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about mushroom at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
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Any of the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi typically produced above ground on soil or on their food sources (such as decaying wood).
Some mushrooms are edible whereas others are poisonous, and sometimes they are difficult to tell apart.
- A fungus producing such fruiting bodies.
- Champignon or Agaricus bisporus, the mushroom species most commonly used in cooking.
adjective
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Having characteristics like those of a mushroom, for example in shape or appearance, speed of growth, or texture.
mushroom cloud
verb
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To grow quickly to a large size or rapidly increase in scope or scale.
The town’s population mushroomed from 10,000 to 110,000 in five years.
-
To gather mushrooms.
We used to go mushrooming in the forest every weekend.
- To form the shape of a mushroom. To form the shape of a mushroom when striking a soft target.
Origin
From Middle English muscheron, musseron, from Anglo-Norman musherum, moscheron, from Old French moisseron, of obscure origin: probably derived from Old French mosse, moise ("moss"; whence also French mousse), as the use first applied to a type of fungus which grows in moss, from Frankish *mosu (“moss”) or Old Dutch *mosa (“moss”), akin to Old High German mosa (“moor, swamp”), Old High German mos (“moss, bog”), Old High German mios (“moss, mire”), Old English mēos (“moss”), Old English mōs (“bog, marsh”), Old Norse mosi (“moss”), Old Norse myrr (“bog, mire”), from Proto-Germanic *musą, *musô, *miuziz (“mosses, bog”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“mosses, mold, mildew”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)