muse
UK/mjuːz//mjuz/
muse noun: of a person: a source of inspiration.
Noun (1)
muse (plural muses)
- Of a person: a source of inspiration.
- Yoko Ono was John Lennon's wife, lover, and muse.
- Synonyms:
- Pierian spring
- A poet; a bard.
- My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill,
While comments of your praiſe richly compil'd,
Reſerue their Character with goulden quill,
And precious phraſe by all the Muſes fil’d.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 85”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC - So may some gentle Muse With lucky words favour my destined urn1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC
- My toung-tide Muſe in manners holds her ſtill,
Verb
muse (third-person singular simple present muses, present participle musing, simple past and past participle mused)
- To become lost in thought, to ponder.
- Synonyms:
- afterthink, agitate, bethink, call to mind, chew, chew over, chew the cud, cogitate, consider, contemplate
- To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
- When I asked about her affinity for playing self-obsessed artists, O’Hara mused: “Maybe I’m just trying to get it out of my system. I’m so afraid to be like that.”2026 January 30, Judy Berman, “Catherine O’Hara Portrayed the Vain and Delusional With a Radical Lack of Vanity”, in TIME, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2026
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:muse.
- To think on; to meditate on.
- Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.c. 1726, James Thomson, Hymn
- It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […]; […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared...2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
- To wonder at.
- Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
Noun (2)
muse (plural muses)
- An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
- still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse, ne word to creature spake.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- And with this Alan fell into a muse, and for a long time sate^([sic]) very sad and silent.1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC
Noun (3)
muse (plural muses)
- A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.
- Find a hare without a muse. (old proverb)
Noun (4) capitalized: Muse
Muse (plural Muses or (rare) Musae)
- One of the nine Ancient Greek deities of the arts.
- And hears the Muſes in a ring,
Ay round about Joves Altar ſing.1645, John Milton, Il Penseroso
- And hears the Muſes in a ring,
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Muse
Muse
- A city in Shan State, Myanmar.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Muse
Muse
- A surname.
- An unincorporated community in Glades County, Florida.
- An unincorporated community in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, named after Rev. Joseph Muse.
muse meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
muse in Hindi
- म्यूज़
muse in Tamil
- ஒன்றைப் பற்றி அமைதியாகச் சிந்தி, ஆழ்ந்து சிந்தனையில் இரு, சிந்தித்துக் கருத்துத் தெரிவி
muse in Urdu
- میوز
muse in Bengali
- গভীরভাবে চিন্তা করা, ধ্যান করা, কাব্যলক্ষ্মী
More languagesFewer languages
- muse in Telugu
- మ్యూజ్, మ్యూస్
- muse in Malayalam
- ചിന്താമഗ്നനാകുക, അത്യഗാധമായി ആലോചിക്കുക
- muse in Kannada
- ಚಿಂತಿಸು, ಗಾಢವಾಗಿ ಆಲೋಚಿಸು, ಓರು, ಉನ್ನು
- muse in Punjabi
- ਮਿਊਜ਼
- muse in Gujarati
- મ્યુઝ
- muse in Odia
- ମ୍ଯ଼ୁଜ୍
- muse in Nepali
- म्युज, म्युस
- muse in Indonesian
- ilham, melamun, termenung
Examples of muse in a sentence
- There's a cure for what ails him after all, she mused before continuing.
- Mount Kumgang, or Geumgangsan, which translates as Diamond Mountain, has always been a muse for Koreans.
- We were served with two muse bouches which really set the scene for what was to come.
Synonyms of muse
- Pierian spring
- afterthink
- bethink
- call to mind
- chew
- chew over
- chew the cud
- cogitate
- consider
- contemplate
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of muse
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | muses |
| plural | Muses |
| plural (rare) | Musae |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | muses |
| present participle | musing |
| past participle | mused |
| past | mused |
Origin of muse
From Middle French muse, from Latin Mūsa, from Ancient Greek Μοῦσα (Moûsa).
From Middle English musen, from Old French muser.
From French musse. See muset.
Words formed from muse
Words that rhyme with muse
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- amuse
- bemuse
- choose
- excuse
- misuse
- ooze
- peruse
- accuse
- booze
- druse
- news
- ruse
- snooze
- suffuse
- transfuse
- who's
- whose
- circumfuse
- cooze
- defuse
- diffuse
- enthuse
- flues
- fuze
- jalouse
- mews
- perfuse
- snooz
- Toulouse
- twos
- yous
- 'scuse
- accrues
- aloos
- bambooze
- blooze
- boos
- boose
- brews
- canoes
- chews
- clews
- clues
- construes
- contuse
- coos
- coups
- crews
Questions about muse
- What does muse mean?
- Muse means of a person: a source of inspiration.
- What is muse in Hindi?
- Muse in Hindi is म्यूज़. See Muse meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is muse?
- Muse can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce muse?
- Muse is pronounced /mjuːz/ (UK).
- What is the plural of muse?
- The plural of muse is muses.
Words near muse in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: muse (page history and authors); Muse (page history and authors); muse (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); muse (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muse (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); muse (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muse (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); Muse (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muse (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); muse (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); muse (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); muse (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); muse (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-muse.ogg, en-au-muse.ogg.
Cite this entry: “muse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/muse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.