toadstool

American  

[tohd-stool] / ˈtoʊdˌstul /

noun

• toadstools
  plural

1. any of various mushrooms having a stalk with an umbrellalike cap, especially the agarics.

2. a poisonous mushroom, as distinguished from an edible one.

3. any of various other fleshy fungi, as the puffballs and coral fungi.

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toadstool British  

/ ˈtəʊdˌstuːl /

noun

1. (not in technical use) any basidiomycetous fungus with a capped spore-producing body that is not edible Compare mushroom

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• toadstools
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of toadstool

First recorded in 1350–1400, toadstool is from the Middle English word tadstol. See toad, stool

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Explanation

A toadstool might sound like something you'd find a fairy living under, but it's really just a poisonous mushroom. If you're walking in the woods and see especially colorful, mushrooms, they're probably toadstools. In other words, it's not a good idea to eat them. You can use the terms mushroom and toadstool interchangeably — although most people save toadstool for fairy tales and poisonous fungi; it's not a scientific term. The root is probably just the creative combination of the Middle English tadde, "toad," and stole, "stool."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

toadstool toadstools

Is it a “fruiting body,” better known as the toadstool, that emerges from the ground in a panoply of shapes and textures?

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025

Kind of like an Alice in Wonderland toadstool, only made of tender cake and studded with jammy blueberries.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2021

And I realized very quickly I had to do more to engage them than just sitting there on the toadstool looking pretty.

From Slate ● Mar. 27, 2020

It is related to mushroom and toadstool fungi, and has a distinct "mushroomy" odour.

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2013

But I didn’t know the meaning of the toadstool.

From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis

Stories multiply like toadstools in forest loam in the fiction of Thomas Pynchon, America’s most devout skeptic of the narrative urge, yet also one of its greatest exponents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025

When Stamets talks about mushrooms, or is photographed with mushrooms, they’re typically toadstools, but he also points to evidence indicating that mycelium has higher overall levels of active ingredients than the fruiting bodies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025

It doesn’t take long for the bigger cabbages to look like bolted toadstools on steroids.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 16, 2023

Mushrooms and toadstools are the reproductive part of the fungus and picking them can stop the fungus from releasing its spores to sustain a healthy population.

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2022

To be a man, a doer, a builder, a leader, or to be a tool, an unfunny joke, a crusher of funky toadstools.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

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