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PlainSpell

fusty

/ˈfʌsti/adjective

fusty is an adjective meaning “Moldy or musty” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-U-S-T-Y and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 22 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).

What does fusty mean?

adjective

  1. 1

    Moldy or musty.

  2. 2

    Stale-smelling or stuffy.

  3. 3

    Old-fashioned, refusing to change or update.

  4. 4

    Tasting of the cask.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce fusty?

  • /ˈfʌsti/

Fusty has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fusty.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fusty

  • fustier comparative
  • fustiest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is fusty?

Fusty appears about once in every 22 million words in written English, the 141,699th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Fusty in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanmodrig, muffig (moldy or musty), veraltet, verstaubt (old-fashioned, refusing to change or update)
Spanishapolillado, desfasado, trasnochado, viejuno (old-fashioned, refusing to change or update)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fusty come from?

From Middle English fusty, equivalent to fust + -y. Compare Scots foosty.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).