Mould

How to spell mould

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce mould

What does mould mean?

1. nounA hollow container into which a soft or molten material is poured so it sets into a particular shape.
2. verbTo shape a soft material by hand or in a form, or to influence how something develops.
3. nounA furry growth of fungus that appears on damp or decaying material such as food or walls.

Mould in a sentence

• noun

  She poured the melted chocolate into a silicone mould shaped like a star.

• verb

  A skilled potter can mould wet clay into a perfect bowl.

• noun

  Green mould had spread across the forgotten loaf of bread.

• noun

  The foundry used a steel mould to cast each engine part.

• verb

  Good teachers help mould the character of their students.

• noun

  Damp behind the bathroom tiles encourages black mould to grow.

Where does mould come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This spelling actually bundles together two or three originally distinct words. The dominant sense, a hollow form for shaping material, comes from the Latin modulus, a diminutive of modus meaning 'a measure', so it literally meant 'a little measure or pattern'. That passed into Old French as modle and arrived in English in the 1200s as a word for a template or shaping form, later giving the verb 'to mould' something into shape. The biological sense, the woolly fungus that grows on damp food, has a separate Germanic origin and is related to Middle English words for mustiness and decay. A third strand, surviving in 'leaf mould', descends from Old English molde meaning 'loose earth or soil', the same root behind the poetic phrase 'the mould of the earth'. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the -ou-, which is purely conventional and carries no extra sound; American English trimmed it to 'mold', and that rival form is the main reason the -ou- is easy to drop.

How the word is built

• mould (from Latin modulus: a small measure or pattern), with the silent British/Canadian -ou- spelling; the fungus sense traces to a separate Germanic root

British and American spelling

Mould is the British spelling. American English spells it mold.