MOSS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does moss mean? 

• MOSS (noun)
  The noun MOSS has 1 sense:

1. tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants

  Familiarity information: MOSS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOSS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("moss" is a kind of...):

bryophyte; nonvascular plant (any of numerous plants of the division Bryophyta)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "moss"):

acrocarp; acrocarpous moss (a moss in which the main axis is terminated by the archegonium (and hence the capsule))

pleurocarp; pleurocarpous moss (a moss having the archegonium or antheridium on a short side branch rather than the main stalk)

bog moss; peat moss; sphagnum; sphagnum moss (any of various pale or ashy mosses of the genus Sphagnum whose decomposed remains form peat)

Derivation:

mossy (overgrown with moss)

 Context examples 

The unknown, lurking in the midst of the sticks and moss, was savagely clutching him by the nose.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He stood like a statue till the danger was past, when he yielded to a fit of trembling and sank down into the wet moss.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Having found the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss where he had tossed it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So mosses and other plants flourish in these lakes, leading to carbon uptake rates that are among the highest in the world, even compared to carbon-rich peatlands.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

See how soft the dried leaves are under your feet and how rich and green the moss is that clings to these old trees.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

This had been Maud’s idea, and she had herself jealously gathered all the moss.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As she came out into the sunshine, Alleyne noticed that her light gown, slashed with pink, was all stained with earth and with moss upon one side from shoulder to hem.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They also used different plasters on some walls, and smeared the surfaces with buttermilk or potato starch solutions to trigger moss and mould to grow.

(Smoother walls healthier for lungs, SciDev.Net)

But I struggled upward, and at last I reached a ledge several feet deep and covered with soft green moss, where I could lie unseen, in the most perfect comfort.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Clear up at Whitcross Brow, almost four miles off, and moor and moss all the way.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)