mossy

American  

[maw-see, mos-ee] / ˈmɔ si, ˈmɒs i /

adjective

mossier, mossiest

1. overgrown with or abounding in moss.

   a mossy stone.

2. covered with a mosslike growth.

3. appearing as if covered with moss.

4. resembling moss.

   a mossy softness.

5. old or outdated; antiquated.

   mossy ideas.

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Other Word Forms

• mossiness
  noun
• unmossy
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of mossy

First recorded in 1540–50; moss + -y ¹

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Explanation

Anything covered with or resembling moss is mossy. A mossy rock can be pretty. Mossy teeth are never pretty. Moss tends to grow in a green carpet, especially in wooded or shady areas, so when you're walking through a forest you'll probably come upon mossy areas. Informally, you can also use this adjective to mean "old fashioned" or "dated." Your grandparents' conservative ideas about dating, for example, might be a little mossy. The word stems from an Old English root, meos, that's a close relation to mos, or "bog."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mossy mossier mossiest

Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta, the water pours out of lava tubes and down mossy cliffs, forming a verdant and ethereal cascade into a calm, shaded swimming hole.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025

This year's event favours rewilding and sustainability, with mossy paving, native planting and gravel paths.

From BBC ● May 19, 2025

Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta’s majestic slopes, Mossbrae Falls cascades out of lava tubes and down mossy cliffs into the Sacramento River in ethereal curtains of mist, sending rainbows dancing in all directions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2025

These fibers form a contact point to pyramidal cells -- the mossy fiber synapse.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024

Killconey stretched full length on a mossy patch.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

After that the most Jabez asked of Eddie was to write "Please remit" or "Past due" on the mossier bills.

From In a Little Town by Rupert Hughes

The new cottages are finely designed, but they are too black-and-white and painty to group easily with the older, mossier buildings and the White Hart Inn, with its nobly ugly sign.

From Highways and Byways in Surrey by Hugh Thomson

Ah," he said, "I have done fifty, without food, over the roughest and mossiest mountains.

From The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies by John Buchan

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