Mood

How to spell mood

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce mood

What does mood mean?

1. nounA temporary state of mind or emotion that colours how someone feels and behaves.
2. nounA category of verb forms that expresses whether a statement is a fact, a command, a wish, or a hypothetical.

Mood in a sentence

• A long commute home left him in a foul mood.

• The subjunctive mood is used in phrases such as 'if I were you'.

• Soft lighting and quiet music set a relaxed mood for the evening.

• A command like 'sit down' is in the imperative mood.

Where does mood come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from the Old English mōd, which meant something far broader than today's sense: it covered the mind, the heart, the spirit, and even courage or pride. It belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close relatives in Old Norse, Dutch (moed, meaning courage), and German (Mut, also courage), all tracing back to a shared Proto-Germanic root for the inner disposition of a person. Over the centuries the English meaning narrowed from a person's whole frame of mind to a temporary state of feeling, which is how we use it now. The grammatical sense, as in the indicative or subjunctive mood, is a curious twist: it really descends from the Latin modus, meaning measure or manner, but its spelling was pulled into line with the unrelated emotional mood. Because the word has always been a plain double-o spelling with no silent letters, it is one of the easier words to write, and the only real care needed is not to confuse it with the verb mooed.

How the word is built

• mood (from Old English mōd: mind, heart, spirit); a single unbroken root with no prefix or suffix