Mud

How to spell mud

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce mud

What does mud mean?

1. nounSoft, wet earth formed when soil mixes with water.

Mud in a sentence

• The children tracked mud across the clean kitchen floor.

• Heavy rain turned the festival car park into thick mud.

Where does mud come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word mud arrived in English during the 1300s, most likely borrowed from Middle Low German mudde or the closely related Middle Dutch modde, both meaning soft wet earth or sludge. These continental words trace back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of dampness and decay, and they have cousins across the North Sea languages, such as Old Swedish modd for slush. Before this loanword settled in, English speakers tended to use other terms for soft soil, but mud quickly took hold because it was short and vivid. Over the centuries it spread into many figurative uses, from dragging someone's name through the mud to a political mudslinging campaign. The spelling has stayed reassuringly plain, a three-letter word with no silent letters or doubled consonants to trip anyone up.

How the word is built

• mud (a single root, no affixes); from Middle Low German/Middle Dutch mudde meaning wet soft earth