musk

/mʌsk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/mɐsk/

musk noun: a greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.

Noun (1)

musk (countable and uncountable, plural musks)

A greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
- Your onely way to make a good pomander, is this. Take an ownce of the pureſt garden mould, clenſed and ſteeped ſeauen daies in change of motherleſſe roſe water, then take the beſt Labdanum, Benioine, both Storaxes, amber greece, and Ciuet, and muſke, incorporate them together, and work them into...1607, [attributed to Thomas Tomkis], Lingva: Or The Combat of the Tongue, and the Five Senses for Superiority. A Pleasant Comœdie., London: Printed by G[eorge] Eld, for Simon Waterson, →OCLC, act IV...
- An old medical record relates that by means of musk the genital power of a man in his eightieth year was resuscitated.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 160
A similar secretion produced by the otter and the civet.
A synthetic organic compound used as a substitute for the above.
The odour of musk.
(slang, vulgar) Body odor, especially when aroused or unwashed.
- I was so excited I could smell my own musk.
- It turned out that Zach was just one of many gay men who is into the concept of “man scent” (also often called “man musk”), achieved by avoiding the deodorant and manufactured fragrances that interfere with the raw, natural odors of sex.2020 February 28, Phillip Picardi, The Season’s Hottest Scent Is...B.O.?, archived from the original on 01 Mar 2020
A musk deer (genus Moschus).
A muskflower (Erythranthe moschata).
A plant of the genus Erodium (Erodium moschatum); the musky heronsbill.
A plant of the genus Muscari; grape hyacinth.
(Australia) A small tree or tall shrub, Olearia argophylla, of south-eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania, with leaves that produce a musky aroma.
- [W]here the gullies are fringed with blackwoods, wattle, myrtles, musks and sassafras[.]1951, Ambrose Pratt, The Lore of the Lyrebird, Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens, page 58

Verb

musk (third-person singular simple present musks, present participle musking, simple past and past participle musked)

(transitive) To perfume with musk.

Proper noun capitalized: Musk

Musk (plural Musks)

A surname.
- Since the announcement, Musk reposted claims on his social media platform X that $20,000 of American tax dollars are spent on drag shows in Ecuador, $750,000 to operate the fire alarm at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, and $350,000 to develop AI smart toilets.2024 November 14, Rhian Lubin, “What is DOGE? Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency led by Musk and Ramaswamy”, in The Independent
A locality in the Shire of Hepburn, central western Victoria, Australia.

Noun (2) capitalized: MuSK

MuSK

(abbreviation) Abbreviation of muscle-specific kinase.

musk meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

musk in Hindi

greasy secretion with powerful odour: कस्तूरी kastūrī, मुश्क muśk

musk in Urdu

greasy secretion with powerful odour: مشک muśk

musk in Bengali

greasy secretion with powerful odour: কস্তুরী kosturi

More languagesFewer languages

musk in Telugu: కస్తూరి kastūri
musk in Malayalam: കസ്തൂരി kastūri
musk in Kannada: ಕಸ್ತೂರಿ, ಮಸ್ಕ್
musk in Punjabi: ਕਸਤੂਰੀ kastūrī
musk in Gujarati: કસ્તુરી, મસ્ક
musk in Odia: କସ୍ତୁରୀ
musk in Sanskrit: कस्तूरी kastūrī, कस्तूरिका kastūrikā, see also Thesaurus:कस्तूरी
musk in Nepali: कस्तुरी, मस्क
musk in Tagalog: almiskle
musk in Arabic: مِسْك misk
musk in Malay: kasturi
musk in Indonesian: kesturi
musk in Persian: مشک mošk
musk in Vietnamese: xạ hương

Examples of musk in a sentence

Musk is not running DOGE are tantamount to legal gaslighting,” CREW said.
Musk, who wore a suit and tie to Thursday’s meeting instead of his usual T-shirt after Mr.
Musk wrote in his post that “xAI and X’s futures are intertwined.”

All 35 example sentences with musk

Forms of musk

Noun
plural	musks
Verb
third-person singular present	musks
present participle	musking
past participle	musked
past	musked
Proper noun
plural	Musks

Plural of musk: musks

Origin of musk

From Middle English muske, borrowed from Old French musc, from Late Latin muscus, from Ancient Greek μόσχος (móskhos), from Middle Persian [script needed] (mwšk' /⁠muʃk⁠/) whence Persian مشک (mošk). Ultimately from Sanskrit मुष्क (muṣka, “testicle”), the shape of the gland of animals secreting the substance being compared to human testicles, a diminutive of मूष् (mūṣ, “mouse”), the shape of human testicles being compared to mice, from Proto-Indo-European *muh₂s (“mouse”). Cognate with mouse.

* English (mainly Suffolk): variant of Must, itself as a surname of English origin from Middle English must (“must (fermenting juice)”). * English (mainly Suffolk): alternatively perhaps in some cases from Middle English muske (“musk”). * Americanized form of Dutch Musch, from Middle Dutch mussche (“sparrow”; modern Dutch mus). * Dutch: nickname or metonymic occupational name from muskus (“musk”).

Words formed from musk

Phrases with musk

9 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with musk

Questions about musk

What does musk mean?: Musk means a greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
What is musk in Hindi?: Musk in Hindi is कस्तूरी (kastūrī), मुश्क (muśk). See Musk meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is musk?: Musk can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce musk?: Musk is pronounced /mʌsk/ (UK).
What is the plural of musk?: The plural of musk is musks.

Words near musk in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: musk (page history and authors); Musk (page history and authors); MuSK (page history and authors); musk (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); musk (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); musk (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); musk (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); musk (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-musk.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Musk.wav.

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