mucus
mu·cus/ˈmjuːkəs/noun
mucus is spelled M-U-C-U-S: 5 letters and 2 syllables (mu·cus). It appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “mucous vs mucus” about 1,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mucus means “A slippery secretion from the lining of the mucous membranes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mucus is muci or mucuses.
How many letters and syllables are in mucus?
| Letters | 5: M-U-C-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: mu·cus |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is mucus?
Mucus appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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).
How do you pronounce mucus?
- /ˈmjuːkəs/
Mucus has 2 syllables, split mu·cus in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-mucus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mucus
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: mucous (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of mucus
- muci plural
- mucuses plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mucus mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A slippery secretion from the lining of the mucous membranes.
The mucus in coryza may vary from runny to viscous.
- 2
Short for vegetable mucus
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Mucus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense slippery secretion:
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 mucus come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin mūcus. Partly displaced Old English slīm, whence modern slime.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).