Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
nounA similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
Sentence Examples
Musk is one of the best scents.
The scent of musk is one of the best smells there is.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The perfume had a strong ____ smell that reminded me of wild animals.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The perfume has a very strong and heavy base note of ____, which gives it a deeply sensual and very long-lasting fragrance that lingers for hours.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /muʃk/) whence Persian مشک (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into what form you pleaſe; this, if your breath bee not to valiant, will make you ſmell as ſweete as my Ladies dogge."
— 1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, act IV, scene iii:
"An old medical record relates that by means of musk the genital power of a man in his eightieth year was resuscitated."
— 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 160:
"Since the announcement, Musk reposted claims on his social media platform X that $20,000 of American tax dollars are spent on drag shows in Ecuador, $750,000 to operate the fire alarm at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and $350,000 to develop AI smart toilets."
— 2024 November 14, Rhian Lubin, “What is DOGE? Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk and Ramaswamy”, in The Independent: