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:
Bacterial blotch causes brown or yellow discoloration on mushroom surfaces, damaging their appearance and reducing their commercial value.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
By uncovering this hidden complexity, scientists hope to improve disease detection, develop more reliable treatments, and reduce the crop losses that have long burdened mushroom producers.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
Unsworth, who runs Forest Horizons in Adlington, said fly agaric, the distinctive red mushroom with white spots, and blushers had been found in good numbers.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Warner Bros. is a top operator and yet has been passed around like a dented can of mushroom soup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The tiniest bead of juice from the blusher mushroom.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
"We hope that expanding our research will lead to the development of better diagnostics and more effective treatments to address the full group of disease-causing bacteria in white button mushrooms," she said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
The scientists combined DNA sequencing, chemical profiling and conventional laboratory testing to identify the bacteria associated with the damaged mushrooms.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
However, he warned that some poisonous species, including the brown roll-rim, can be mistaken for edible mushrooms.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Porcini mushrooms, also known as penny buns or ceps, had been "a bit thin on the ground", he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Most mushrooms lived only several days, and Clare had expected the fuzzy white knot to quickly shrivel up and return to the earth.
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
To understand how the people mover mushroomed in price, let’s start at the beginning.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Military helicopters backed by tractors on the ground hauled water Sunday to help firefighters tame Belgium's largest modern-day wildfire, which mushroomed in size since breaking out two days earlier in a hard-to-access nature reserve.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 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
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
Anxiety about the Iran war, inflation and mushrooming public debt have driven the recent selloff in Treasury bonds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Data centers are mushrooming, so numerous and monolithic they seem abstract, until one starts materializing on the Conodoguinet Creek in Pennsylvania, where I grew up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
That is at least least partly due to Proposition 103, which was passed in 1988 in an era of mushrooming auto premiums.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
More and more EU countries are being thrown in the public spending sin bin over their mushrooming deficits, with Bulgaria expected to be added Wednesday.
From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026
Gerald Black, at his own request, was supervising the mushrooming wooden partitions that were springing up in a bellying circle on the vaulted third floor of Radiation Building 2.
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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