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:
We irrigate our lawns and other greenery, which is a boon to the beetles because they need moist landscapes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
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
The oil-based recipe yielded an airy yet moist crumb that was not overwhelmingly sweet—something true of all of Ms. de Ferrier’s cakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
This moist air results in much higher humidity and adds significantly to the heat stress.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
I dabbed at my moist eyes, inhaling the faint scent of a greasy cheeseburger and fries.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
As it has shifted slightly further north and to the east, the result has been a south-easterly airflow causing hotter and moister air to spread into the UK.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
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
And the drumstick stayed moister than the other birds, with superior flavor.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2023
It was all familiar, the scent of the hedges and the earth and the air, so much cooler and moister than in the south.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
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
Anim. says, that men have the moistest brain of all living creatures from which the seed proceedeth which is converted into the long hair of the head.
May we not recognise in this the hand of bounteous Providence, which has given perhaps the most stony soil in Europe to the moistest climate in it?
From A Tour in Ireland 1776-1779 by Henry Morley
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.
