Word.ws English Dictionary

mold

UK/məʊld//moʊld/

mold noun: a hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.

mold: a hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance
Image: Jastrow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

  1. (US) A hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.
  2. (US) A frame or model around or on which something is formed or shaped.
  3. (US) Something that is made in or shaped on a mold.
  4. (US) The shape or pattern of a mold.
  5. (US) General shape or form.
    • the oval mold of her face
    • Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.1711, Alexander Pope, "The Temple of Fame", in The Works of Alexander Pope: New Ed. Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials, Collected in Part by John Wilson Croker....
  6. (US) Distinctive character or type.
    • a leader in the mold of her predecessors
  7. (US) A fixed or restrictive pattern or form.
    • His method of scientific investigation broke the mold and led to a new discovery.
  8. (US) A group of moldings.
    • the arch mold of a porch or doorway; the pier mold of a Gothic pier, meaning the whole profile, section, or combination of parts
  9. (US) A fontanelle.

Verb (1)

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. (US, transitive) To shape in or on a mold; to form into a particular shape; to give shape to.
    • Not only in formal discourse, but in the ordinary walks of life, a well-modulated, expressive voice is a most valuable asset, whether one’s object be to interest, persuade or convince, to give a command or entreat a favor. The moulding of the voice into finished articulate speech is a mechanism in...1910, Walter A. Wells, “The hygienic, economic and sociologic aspect of the throat”, in The Laryngoscope, volume 20, number 1, →DOI, pages 47–48
    • Your hands shaped me and made me … Remember that you molded me like clay.1978, Job 10:8-9, Old Testament, New International Version
  2. (US, transitive) To guide or determine the growth or development of; influence
    • It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise, farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the example.1963. Haile Selassie (translated)
  3. (US, transitive) To fit closely by following the contours of.
  4. (US, transitive) To make a mold of or from (molten metal, for example) before casting.
  5. (US, transitive) To ornament with moldings.
  6. (US, intransitive) To be shaped in or as if in a mold.
    • These shoes gradually molded to my feet.

Noun (2)

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

  1. (US) A natural substance in the form of a furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi that appears when organic material lies for a long time exposed to (usually warm and moist) air.
    • She took the cheese out of the refrigerator and inspected it for mold.
    Synonyms:
    moulder
  2. (US) A fungus that creates such furry growths.

Verb (2)

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. (US, transitive) To cause to become moldy; to cause mold to grow upon.
  2. (US, intransitive) To become moldy; to be covered or filled, in whole or in part, with a mold.

Noun (3)

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

  1. (US) Loose friable soil, rich in humus and fit for planting.
  2. (UK, US, dialectal, plural) Earth, ground.

Verb (3)

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. (US) To cover with mold or soil.

Noun (4)

mold (uncountable)

  1. (US, dialectal, obsolete) The top or crown of the head.
    • What a while continueth the mould and crowne of our heads to beate and pant, before our braine is well ſetled[…]1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] The Proëme.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius...
    • By reaſon whereof the flaſhing of the Water, and ſharpness of the Air, did ſo pierce the Archbiſhop (being above Threeſcore and thirteen years of Age) that he complained the ſame night of a great cold, which he had then taken in the mould of his Head.1612, Sir George Paule, The life of John Whitgift […] , London: Ri. Chiswell, published 1699, page 118

Proper noun capitalized: Mold

Mold

  1. A town and community in and the county town of Flintshire, Wales (OS grid ref SJ2364).
  2. An unincorporated community in Douglas County, Washington, United States.
  3. A surname.

Noun (5) capitalized: MoLD

MoLD (plural MoLDs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, informal) Acronym of Moon landing denial.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym, informal) Acronym of Moon landing denier.
    Synonyms:
    MoLDer

mold meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

mold in Hindi

furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi
फफूंदी phaphūndī

mold in Tamil

furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi
பூஞ்சை pūñcai

mold in Urdu

مولڈ

mold in Bengali

ছাঁচ
More languagesFewer languages
mold in Telugu
అచ్చు, అచ్చు వేయడానికి
mold in Malayalam
പൂപ്പൽ pūppal
mold in Kannada
ಅಚ್ಚು
mold in Punjabi
ਮੋਲਡ
mold in Gujarati
મોલ્ડ, મોલ્ડ કરવા માટે
mold in Odia
ଛାଞ୍ଚ, ଛାଞ୍ଚ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
mold in Assamese
গঢ়া gorha
mold in Nepali
मोल्ड
mold in Tagalog
amag, apaya
mold in Arabic
قَالِب qālib, سَنَّ sanna, تَعَفُّن taʕaffun, عُفُونَة ʕufūna
mold in Malay
kulapuk
mold in Indonesian
kapang
mold in Persian
کالب kâlob, قالب qâleb, کپک kapak, پسکه poska
mold in Thai
แม่พิมพ์ mɛ̂ɛ-pim, แม่แบบ mɛ̂ɛ-bɛ̀ɛp, เบ้าหล่อ bâo-lɔ̀ɔ, รา raa
mold in Vietnamese
mốc
mold in Myanmar
မှို hmui

Examples of mold in a sentence

  • This wood has the ability to fight off insects, fungus, and mold for a considerable time.
  • All of their symptoms cleared up after the mold was removed.
  • He accidentally exposed the bacteria to mold spores.

All 40 example sentences with mold

Synonyms of mold

Forms of mold

Noun
pluralmolds
alternative Commonwealthmould
alternative formmool
pluralMoLDs
alternative formMOLD
Verb
third-person singular presentmolds
present participlemolding
past participlemolded
pastmolded

Past tense of mold: molded

Plural of mold: molds

Origin of mold

From Middle English molde (“mold, cast”), from Old French modle, mole, from Latin modulus, from Latin modus. Doublet of module, modulus, and model.

From Middle English mowlde, noun use and alteration of mowled, past participle of mowlen, moulen (“to grow moldy”), from Old Norse mygla (compare dialectal Danish mugle), from Proto-Germanic *muglōną, diminutive and denominative of *mukiz 'soft substance' (compare Old Norse myki, mykr (“cow dung”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mewk- (“slick, soft”). More at muck and meek.

From Middle English molde, from Old English molde, from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil”) (compare Old Frisian molde, Middle Dutch moude, Dutch moude, obsolete German Molte, Norwegian Bokmål mold, and Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (mulda)), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥h₂-téh₂ (compare Ashkun mič, Kamkata-viri muři, mřey, mřëi, Prasuni mire, Waigali muk, all meaning "clay").

Words formed from mold

Phrases with mold

Words that rhyme with mold

30 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mold

What does mold mean?
Mold means a hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.
What is mold in Hindi?
Mold in Hindi is फफूंदी (phaphūndī). See Mold meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is mold?
Mold can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce mold?
Mold is pronounced /məʊld/ (UK).
What is the plural of mold?
The plural of mold is molds.

Words near mold in the dictionary

  1. molbio
  2. molcajete
  3. molcajetes
  4. Molcan
  5. Molchan
  6. mold
  7. mold box
  8. mold boxes
  9. mold fossil
  10. mold fossils
  11. mold loft

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mold (page history and authors); Mold (page history and authors); MoLD (page history and authors); mold (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mold (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mould.ogg.

Cite this entry: “mold.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mold. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.