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PlainSpell

mush

/mʌʃ/noun, verb, interjection

mush is spelled M-U-S-H: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Mush, the name). As a noun, mush means “A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mush is mushes.

How many letters and syllables are in mush?

Letters4: M-U-S-H
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 29,270th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is mush?

Mush appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 29,270th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Mush, the name.

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

How do you pronounce mush?

  • US /mʌʃ/
  • US /mʊʃ/

As a noun (“A food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water…”): /mʌʃ/.

As an interjection (“A directive given (usually to dogs or a horse) to start…”): /mʌʃ/, /mʊʃ/, /mʌʃ/.

As a noun (“(US, slang, chiefly Nonantum) A form of address, normally…”): /mʊʃ/.

Mush has one syllable (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: En-us-mush.ogg, En-us-mush-2.ogg, En-au-mush.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with mush?

One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mush from its last stressed vowel (/ʌʃ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of mush

  • mushes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • moosh
  • mushing participle, present
  • mushed participle, past

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

What does mush mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance.

  2. 2

    A mixture of noise produced by the harmonics of continuous-wave stations.

  3. 3

    The foam of a breaker.

  4. 4

    A magmatic body containing a significant proportion of crystals suspended in the liquid phase or melt.

  5. 5

    A gun.

    Do you want me to back out the mush, bruv?

  6. 6

    A food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk; porridge.

  7. 7

    Cornmeal cooked in water and served as a porridge or as a thick sidedish like grits or mashed potatoes.

  8. 8

    A walk, especially across the snow with dogs.

  9. 9

    QuebecslangA magic mushroom.

  10. 10

    UKslang(US, slang, chiefly Nonantum) A form of address, normally to a man.

    Oy mush, come over here and gimme a hand with the motor.

  11. 11

    AustraliaUKslangThe face.

  12. 12

    slangA cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well; a musher.

verb

  1. 1

    To squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else.

    He mushed the ingredients together.

  2. 2

    To walk, especially across the snow with dogs.

  3. 3

    To drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across the snow.

  4. 4

    To notch, cut, or indent (cloth, etc.) with a stamp.

interjection

  1. 1

    A directive given (usually to dogs or a horse) to start moving, or to move faster.

noun

as MUSH
  1. 1

    A form of multi-user dungeon, often used for online social intercourse and role-playing games.

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

Mush in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanMatsch, Brei (semiliquid substance), Maisbrei, Polenta (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked…)
Spanishgachas de harina de maíz (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked…), andando, vamos (directive given to start moving), champi (slang: magic mushrooms), che, güey (slang: form of address to a man)
Frenchhue, dia (directive given to start moving)

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 mush come from?

Probably a variant of mash, or from a dialectal variant of Middle English mos (“mush, pulp, porridge”); compare Middle English appelmos (“applesauce”), from Old English mōs (“food, victuals, porridge, mush”), from Proto-West Germanic *mōs, from Proto-Germanic *mōsą (“porridge, food”), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“wet, fat, dripping”).

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

What to look up after mush