musty
/ˈmʌsti/adjective
musty is spelled M-U-S-T-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, musty means “Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in musty?
| Letters | 5: M-U-S-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 35,748th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is musty?
Musty appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 35,748th 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 musty?
- US /ˈmʌsti/
Musty 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: En-us-musty.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of musty
- mustier comparative
- mustiest superlative
- musties present, singular, he/she/it
- mustying participle, present
- mustied participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- more musty comparative
- most musty superlative
- musthy
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does musty mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Affected by dampness or mould; damp, mildewed, mouldy.
- 2
Having an odour or taste of mould; also (generally), having a stale or unfresh odour or taste.
musty food musty furniture a musty odour
- 3
Characteristic of or relating to mould or mouldiness.
- 4
Of attitudes, ideas, writing, or other abstract things: no longer fresh or interesting; outdated, stale.
- 5
Of a person: boring and unadventurous; also, old-fashioned, stuck in the past.
- 6
Bad-tempered, grumpy, irritable.
- 7
rareOf a male animal such as a camel or an elephant: in musth.
noun
- 1
obsoleteA type of snuff with a musty flavour (adjective sense 2).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo turn musty (adjective sense 1 or 2); to must.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Musty in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense having an odour or taste of mould; (generally) having a stale or unfresh odour o:
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.