moss
/mɔs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.89 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of various small, green, seedless plants growing on the ground or on the surfaces of trees, stones, etc.; now specifically, a plant of the phylum Bryophyta (formerly division Musci).
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Any alga, lichen, bryophyte, or other plant of seemingly simple structure.
Countable; Informal; Uncountable
verb
To make a spectacular catch over 1 or multiple defenders.
Intransitive verb; Slang; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Another says you should tense your body, look up in the air, and think about cool moss."
- "Spanish moss"
- "Irish moss"
- "club moss"
- "the mosses of the Scottish border"
- "Loynton Moss"
Etymology
From Middle English mos, from Old English mos (“bog, marsh, moss”), from Proto-West Germanic *mos, from Proto-Germanic *musą (“bog, moss”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“moss”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian möösk (“moss”), Saterland Frisian Moas (“moss”), West Frisian moas (“moss”), Alemannic German Mies (“moss”), Dutch mos (“moss; lichen; marsh, swamp”), German and Luxembourgish Moos (“moss”), Low German Moss (“moss”), Danish mos (“moss”), mose (“bog; moor”), Faroese and Icelandic mosi (“moss”), Norwegian Bokmål mose (“moss”), Norwegian Nynorsk mose, Swedish mossa, mosse (“raised bog”); also Latin muscus (“moss”), Bulgarian мъх (măh, “moss”), Czech and Polish mech (“moss”), Macedonian мов (mov, “moss”), Russian and Ukrainian мох (mox, “moss”), Serbo-Croatian ма̀ховина, màhovina (“moss”), Slovak mach (“moss”), Slovene mah (“moss; raised bog; marsh; velvet; down, fluff”), Armenian մամուռ (mamuṙ, “moss”). Doublet of mousse.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɔs/
- British English: /mɒs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
American moss
animal moss
apple moss
apple-moss
arctic moss
a rolling stone gathers no moss
Ashton Moss
ball moss