mushroom
Americannoun
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mushrooms
plural
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any of various fleshy fungi including the toadstools, puffballs, coral fungi, morels, etc.
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any of several edible species, especially of the family Agaricaceae, as Agaricus campestris meadow mushroom, or field mushroom, cultivated for food in the U.S.
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anything of similar shape or correspondingly rapid growth.
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a large, mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke or rubble, formed in the atmosphere as a result of an explosion, especially a nuclear explosion.
adjective
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of, consisting of, or containing mushrooms.
a mushroom omelet.
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resembling a mushroom in shape or form.
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of rapid growth and often brief duration.
mushroom towns of the gold-rush days.
verb (used without object)
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mushrooms,
present (3rd person singular)
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mushroomed,
past participle, past
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mushrooming
present participle
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to spread, grow, or develop quickly.
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to gather mushrooms.
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to have or assume the shape of a mushroom.
noun
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the fungus producing any of these structures
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something resembling a mushroom in shape or rapid growth
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( as modifier )
mushroom expansion
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verb
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to grow rapidly
demand mushroomed overnight
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to assume a mushroom-like shape
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to gather mushrooms
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Any of various fungi that produce a fleshy fruiting body, which usually consists of a stalk topped by an umbrella-shaped cap. Many mushrooms are basidiomycetes. Some species of mushrooms are edible, though many are poisonous. The term mushroom is often applied to the stalk and cap alone.
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See more at basidiomycete
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mushroomsimple
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mushroomssimple
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have mushroomedperfect
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has mushroomedperfect
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am mushroomingprogressive
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are mushroomingprogressive
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is mushroomingprogressive
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have been mushroomingperfect progressive
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has been mushroomingperfect progressive
Past
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mushroomedsimple
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had mushroomedperfect
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was mushroomingprogressive
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were mushroomingprogressive
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had been mushroomingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mushroom
First recorded in 1350–1400; alteration (by folk etymology) of Middle English muscheron, musseroun, from Middle French mousseron, ultimately from Late Latin mussiriōn-, stem of mussiriō
Explanation
A mushroom is the main body of a certain type of fungus. Edible mushrooms include portobellos and shiitakes. Don't mess around with the inedible types. Walk in the woods after a few days of rain, and you're sure to see mushrooms growing from the damp forest floor. Mushrooms like moist environments, and many mushrooms also grow incredibly fast, which is where the verb form of mushroom, "grow and spread quickly," comes from. The word's origin is ultimately uncertain, although some experts believe it's related to the French mousse, or "moss."
Vocabulary lists containing mushroom
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:
Meanwhile, the judge wrongly blocked other evidence that would have demonstrated the mother-of-two's long-time hobby of mushroom foraging, they said.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
Like City Spa, the menu also offers Eastern European crowd-pleasers made in-house from borscht to cream of mushroom soup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
The bizarre effect became known as "mushroom madness."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
A mushroom long consumed by communities in Asia may contain a substance capable of revealing new information about the human brain and how it creates conscious experience.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
Without the title of Deadwood Usher, without the cottage and cloak and mushroom garden, what was left of him?
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
The mystery resurfaced during the 1990s, when people in Yunnan, Southwest China, reported similar hallucinations after eating bolete mushrooms.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
The results revealed that the mushrooms called Jian shou qing in China and Sedesdem in the Philippines were both L. asiatica.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
The Philippine accounts represented a third independent report of wild mushrooms causing remarkably similar visions of tiny people.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026
Papatsanis used ultrviolet light to illuminate mushrooms known as "beautiful bonnets" growing from a decaying log on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus in Greece.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
What if by “know the provenance,” Orlagh literally just meant that she knew where particular blusher mushrooms had come from?
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
What began in 1995 as Parton's modest giveaway of 6,000 books to needy children has mushroomed into an operation involving hundreds of local groups and multiple publishers.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
That all changed as the Premier League's global appeal mushroomed.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Since last fall, when Kakaiya began selling the model, clinician interest has mushroomed.
From Slate ● Jun. 7, 2026
Complaints have mushroomed for months about World Cup ticket price fluctuations caused by sophisticated algorithms that can dramatically increase costs based on demand.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
From the original eight thousand talents left by Cleomenes, the treasury of Ptolemy II Philadelphus mushroomed to 740,000 talents—-a handsome 9,150 percent increase.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
Turba Labs’ platform could help make more supply available to meet mushrooming demand for the compute necessary to run AI models.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
In nursing homes mushrooming across the Mexican border, elderly Americans are turning up for low-cost care.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
The technology stands accused of fuelling misinformation, copyright lawsuits are mushrooming, and many companies have cited AI adoption as an explanation for mass layoffs.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
And they’re not new, although they do seem to be mushrooming.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2025
“Sometimes I dream lightning strikes. Or earthquakes. Sometimes it’s dark clouds mushrooming in the sky. I wake troubled.”
From "Ghost Boys" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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