1665–75; < French, Middle French morille, perhaps < Vulgar Latin *maurīcula, derivative of Medieval Latin maurus brown, dark-colored; see morel 2, -cule 1
1350–1400; Middle English morel ( l ) e < Anglo-French < Medieval Latin maurella, equivalent to maur ( us ) brown, dark-colored (adj. use of Latin Maurus Moor ) + -ella -elle
A morel is a delicious, but strange-looking, mushroom. These fungi are considered delicacies, and you're most likely to find morels on the menu of a very fancy restaurant. There are several varieties of these distinctive mushrooms, which have pitted or honeycombed caps, though there's disagreement about which can be considered true morels. The most sought-after of these tasty fungi grow wild in forests across the Northern Hemisphere, although they're also cultivated as part of a multimillion-dollar industry. French restaurants and gourmet cooks pay over 20 dollars per pound for morels. A possible source of morel, and the French morille, is a Germanic word meaning "root."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And like the community’s morel mushrooms that seem to grow well over shallow, hastily dug graves, there’s a sense of mulchy inevitability about it.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2025
Hollow is a good sign—that means the morel is safe to eat.
From National Geographic • May 30, 2023
If you're preparing fresh morel mushrooms, you'll use a slightly different cleaning approach.
From Salon • Feb. 1, 2023
In the spring comes morel season — and the best place to find morels is where a wildfire occurred the previous season.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 16, 2022
A morel resembles a tanned finger wearing a dark and deeply honeycombed dunce cap.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
