A thick ____ covered the valley, making it hard to see the road.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Early in the morning, a thick grey ____ hung over the valley, making it almost impossible to see the nearby houses or the river.
Word Origin & History
The noun is from Middle English mist, from Old English mist (“mist; darkness; dimness (of eyesight)”), from Proto-Germanic *mihstaz (“mist, fog”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃migʰstos, from the root *h₃meygʰ- (“cloud, fog, drizzle”). Cognate with Scots mist (“mist, fog”), West Frisian mist (“mist”), Dutch mist (“mist”), Swedish mist (“mist, fog”), Icelandic mistur (“mist”), West Frisian miegelje (“to drizzle”), Dutch dialectal miggelen, miegelen (“to drizzle”), Lithuanian miglà (“fog”), Sanskrit मेघ (megha, “cloud”), Russian мгла (mgla, “fog, haze”).
The verb is from Middle English misten, from Old English mistian.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"His passion cast a mist before his sense."
— 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"Alas, I do not have the strength to continue writing. Already, mist veils my eyes."
— 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Hooktail Castle:
"... it's misting outside. When it mists outside it's half fog and half rain."
— 1996, Don McCabe, Word Families in Sentence Context, AVKO Foundation, →ISBN, page 235:
"On this particular early morning , with a bitter cold rain misting down, Seminov was reaching the end of his endurance."
— 2013 April 2, Don Pendleton, Nuclear Intent, Gold Eagle, →ISBN, page 238:
"... rain misting outside from thick clouds."
— 2023 November 20, Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul Series: The Power of Positive: 101 Inspirational Stories about Changing Your Life through Positive Thinking, Jaico Publishing House, →ISBN, page 25: