Moist

How to spell moist

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce moist

What does moist mean?

1. adjectiveSlightly wet or damp, but not soaked.

Moist in a sentence

• The cake stayed moist for three days in the sealed tin.

• A moist cloth is better than a dry one for wiping the screen.

Where does moist come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the late 1300s from the Old French moiste, which meant 'damp' or 'wet'. The French form is generally traced back to Latin, where two related words seem to have blended together: mucidus, meaning 'mouldy' or 'slimy' (from mucus, the slippery bodily fluid), and musteus, meaning 'fresh' or 'juicy', which itself comes from mustum, the term for new, unfermented wine. That mixed parentage is why the early English sense hovered between 'damp' and 'fresh and juicy'. Over time the word settled on its modern meaning of slightly wet, and the spelling kept the French 'oi' vowel pair that can trip people who write it by ear. The same mucus root still survives in 'mucous' and 'mucilage', reminding us of the word's slightly slimy ancestry.

How the word is built

• moist (single Old French root meaning 'damp'; no prefix or suffix)