adjective
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slightly damp or wet
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saturated with or suggestive of moisture
Synonym Usage
See damp.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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moistnessnoun
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moistfuladjective
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moistlessadjective
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overmoistadjective
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semimoistadjective
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moistlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of moist
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English moiste, from Middle French; connected with Latin mūcidus “musty, moldy”; see mucid
Explanation
Moist things feel damp when you touch them — they're just a little bit wet. You might want to bring a blanket to sit on for a picnic, especially if it rained yesterday and the grass is still moist. Your houseplants are happiest when their soil is moist, and cake is most delicious if it's a little moist, not dry and crumbly. You can also describe your friend's eyes full of tears as moist, or the air on a densely foggy morning as moist. For some reason, the word moist frequently shows up on lists of "least favorite words," which makes more sense when you know its Latin root, muscidus — "moldy" or "slimy."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Bake: Pour into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until golden and a tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
This moist air results in much higher humidity and adds significantly to the heat stress.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Fire officials typically rely on the snowpack to keep vegetation green and moist into summer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2026
Every chocolate cake needs several ingredients for the batter, along with simple syrup to keep the layers moist, as well as frosting and sometimes decorations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
I’d never had cake before, but it turned out to be a sort of bread that was sweet and crumbly and moist.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
A higher dew point means the air is moister and thus will feel muggier.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025
The two systems spin like a pair of intermeshed gears, drawing warmer, moister air up from the mid-Atlantic Ocean into the Arctic, leading to downpours of rain in Svalbard.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2024
"Where they grow in California, it's cooler and moister than you would typically envisage California to be," he explained.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2024
If you add honey instead of regular sugar in baked goods, keep in mind that honey imparts a softer, moister texture.
From Salon ● Feb. 20, 2024
As for livestock, Eurasian sheep made it possible to extend food production to arid areas of Australia unsuitable for agriculture, and Eurasian cattle joined crops in moister areas.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
She and her son Eric make the cakes from a recipe Doan perfected many years ago: a fluffy cream cheese frosting covered in coconut flakes enrobes the moistest sponge in existence.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
Old-man’s beard lichen is completely surprising, too, draped from tree branches in the moistest forests.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 18, 2022
Better yet, the juices will have redistributed and you'll be looking at the tenderest, moistest turkey of your life.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2021
They do well alike in mountain pastures and amid the herbage of the moistest plainland.
From Domesticated Animals Their Relation to Man and to his Advancement in Civilization by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler
Then I went back to the Telegraph Office and cabled to Papa and got back in time for lunch after the moistest morning I ever remember being out in.
From Letters from Mesopotamia in 1915 and January, 1916, from Robert Palmer, who was killed in the Battle of Um El Hannah, June 21, 1916, aged 27 years by Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
