musty

CEFRB2

/ˈmʌsti/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Having a stale, damp, unpleasant smell.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Characteristic of or relating to mould or mouldiness.

Examples

  • Entering your neighbors' living room, you smell a musty odor.

  • musty food musty furniture a musty odour

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Having an odour or taste of mould; also (generally), having a stale or unfresh odour or taste.

  2. Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.

  3. Of attitudes, ideas, writing, or other abstract things: no longer fresh or interesting; outdated, stale.

More examples

In context

  • The cabin smelt musty.

  • This room smells musty.

  • [W]hẽ his wordes be wel ſifted, men ſhall find little fine flowre in thẽ, but all very muſtie branne, not worthy ſo muche as to fede either horſe or hogges.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The old basement had a blank smell because there was no airflow and it was damp.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English musty; further origin uncertain, possibly from one of the following: * From Anglo-Norman muste, moste, variants of moiste, muiste (“moist”), from Old French moiste (“clammy, damp, moist, wet”) (modern French moite (“muggy; sticky, sweaty”)), from a blend of Vulgar Latin *mucidus (from Latin mūcidus (“mouldy, musty”), from Old Latin mūceō (“to be mouldy or musty”) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’, forming adjectives)) + Latin mustum (“unfermented or partially fermented grape juice, must; new wine”) (from mustus (“fresh; young; unfermented”), from Proto-Indo-European *mus-, *mews- (“damp; moss”)). * From another language derived from the a...