mushroom

Syllables: mush·roomUK/ˈmʌʃˌɹuːm/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈmʌʃˌɹʉwm/

mushroom noun: any of the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi typically produced above ground on soil or on their food sources (such as decaying wood). Also the ellipsis of mushroom cloud.

Image: MichaelMaggs, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

mushroom (plural mushrooms)

Any of the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi typically produced above ground on soil or on their food sources (such as decaying wood).
- Some mushrooms are edible whereas others are poisonous, and sometimes they are difficult to tell apart.
- Arabs consider the eating of mushrooms as an aphrodisiac aid.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 159
Synonyms:

shroom, mushrump
A fungus producing such fruiting bodies.
Champignon or Agaricus bisporus, the mushroom species most commonly used in cooking.
Any of the mushroom-shaped pegs in bar billiards.
A concrete column with a thickened portion at the top, used to support a slab.
(figuratively, obsolete) One who rises suddenly from a low condition in life; an upstart.
- upstarts […]call in reproach mushrooms1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VI. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William...
(figuratively) Something that grows very quickly or seems to appear suddenly.
- The craze [hula hoops] began in the U.S.A., and in October the boom crossed the Atlantic and 40 firms sprang into being, some being overnight mushrooms.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 129

Adjective

mushroom (not comparable)

(attributive) Having characteristics like those of a mushroom, for example in shape or appearance, speed of growth, or texture.
- mushroom cloud

Verb

mushroom (third-person singular simple present mushrooms, present participle mushrooming, simple past and past participle mushroomed)

(figuratively, intransitive) To grow quickly to a large size or rapidly increase in scope or scale.
- The town’s population mushroomed from 10,000 to 110,000 in five years.
- In Beilu Village of Liucun Town in Yaodu District, Linfen, abnormal illnesses continued to emerge, as a result of clusters of highly-polluting enterprises mushrooming in the vicinity.2009, Zhang Yulin, “China's War on its Environment and Farmers' Rights: A Study of Shanxi Province”, in Confronting Discrimination and Inequality in China: Chinese and Canadian Perspectives...
(intransitive) To gather mushrooms.
- We used to go mushrooming in the forest every weekend.
(intransitive) To form the shape of a mushroom.
- Excessive spot weld time may cause the electrode tips to mushroom, resulting in no focus of current and a weak weld.2001, James E. Duffy, I-Car Professional Automotive Collision Repair, page 173
1. (intransitive) To form the shape of a mushroom when striking a soft target.

Also used as

mushroom is also the ellipsis of mushroom cloud.

mushroom meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

mushroom in Hindi

fruiting body of a fungus — see also fungus, champignon, fairy-ring champignon: कुकुरमुत्ता kukurmuttā, कुकुरमुता kukurmutā, खुंभी khumbhī, खुंबी khumbī, खुमी khumī, मशरूम maśrūm

mushroom in Tamil

fruiting body of a fungus — see also fungus, champignon, fairy-ring champignon: காளான் kāḷāṉ, ஆம்பி āmpi

mushroom in Urdu

fruiting body of a fungus — see also fungus, champignon, fairy-ring champignon: کُکُرْمُتّا kukurmuttā, کُھمْبی khumbī, فُطْر futr, سَمارُوغ samārūġ, مَشْرُوم maśrūm

mushroom in Bengali

fruiting body of a fungus — see also fungus, champignon, fairy-ring champignon: ছত্রাক chotrak

More languagesFewer languages

mushroom in Telugu: పుట్టగొడుగు puṭṭagoḍugu
mushroom in Malayalam: കുമിൾ kumiḷ, കൂൺ kūṇ
mushroom in Kannada: ನಾಯಿಕೊಡೆ nāyikoḍe, ಅಣಬೆ aṇabe
mushroom in Punjabi: ਖੁੰਭ khumbh, ਖੁੰਬ khumb
mushroom in Gujarati: બિલાડીનો ટોપ bilāḍīno ṭop
mushroom in Odia: ଛତୁ chatu
mushroom in Sanskrit: छत्राकम् chatrākam
mushroom in Sinhala: ක්ෂණික kṣaṇika, හතු hatu
mushroom in Assamese: কাঠফুলা kathphula, বেংছটা beṅsota
mushroom in Nepali: च्याउ cyāu
mushroom in Pashto: مرخېړی marxeṛay, غومبه ğumba
mushroom in Tagalog: kabute
mushroom in Arabic: فُطْر m عَيْش الْغُرَاب fuṭr, مشروم mašrōm, mašrūm, فطر feṭr, عيش الغراب ʕēš el-ḡorāb
mushroom in Malay: cendawan
mushroom in Indonesian: jamur
mushroom in Persian: سَمَاروغ samārōġ, قارْچ ġârč, کارْچ kârč
mushroom in Thai: เห็ด hèt
mushroom in Vietnamese: nấm
mushroom in Myanmar: မှို hmui
Dzongkha: ཤ་མུ sha mu

Examples of mushroom in a sentence

The world's population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, a super-elite with assets of at least $30m, has now mushroomed beyond 250,000 people, all in need of somewhere to store their wealth.2019 June 1, Oliver Wainwright, “Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich”, in Katharine...
It has its own global news gathering and sharing platforms, like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. […] In recent years, all these platforms have mushroomed.2021 February 10, Thomas L. Friedman, “Cyberspace Plus Trump Almost Killed Our Democracy. Can Europe Save Us?”, in The New York Times...

All 40 example sentences with mushroom

Synonyms of mushroom

Forms of mushroom

Noun
plural	mushrooms
Verb
third-person singular present	mushrooms
present participle	mushrooming
past participle	mushroomed
past	mushroomed

Plural of mushroom: mushrooms

Origin of mushroom

From Middle English muscheron, musseron, from Anglo-Norman musherum, moscheron, from Old French moisseron, of obscure origin: probably derived from Old French mosse, moise ("moss"; whence also French mousse), as the use first applied to a type of fungus which grows in moss, from Frankish *mosu (“moss”) or Old Dutch *mosa (“moss”), akin to Old High German mosa (“moor, swamp”), Old High German mos (“moss, bog”), Old High German mios (“moss, mire”), Old English mēos (“moss”), Old English mōs (“bog, marsh”), Old Norse mosi (“moss”), Old Norse myrr (“bog, mire”), from Proto-Germanic *musą, *musô, *miuziz (“mosses, bog”), from Proto-Indo-European *mews- (“mosses, mold, mildew”). Displaced native Old English swamm. More at mire. Alternatively, the Old French may be of pre-Roman origin. See Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs, “mushroom”). Doublet of moss and mousse.

Words formed from mushroom

Phrases with mushroom

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about mushroom

What does mushroom mean?: Mushroom means any of the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi typically produced above ground on soil or on their food sources (such as decaying wood).
What is mushroom in Hindi?: Mushroom in Hindi is कुकुरमुत्ता (kukurmuttā), कुकुरमुता (kukurmutā), खुंभी (khumbhī). See Mushroom meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mushroom in a sentence?: The world's population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, a super-elite with assets of at least $30m, has now mushroomed beyond 250,000 people, all in need of somewhere to store their wealth.
What part of speech is mushroom?: Mushroom can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce mushroom?: Mushroom is pronounced /ˈmʌʃˌɹuːm/ (UK).
What is the plural of mushroom?: The plural of mushroom is mushrooms.

Words near mushroom in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mushroom (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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