Mucilage

//ˈmju.sɪ.lɪd͡ʒ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A thick gluey substance (gum) produced by many plants and some microorganisms. uncountable, usually

    "Malt liquors […] are distinguished from wine, chiefly by the larger quantity of mucilage and saccharine matter […]"

  2. 2
    cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive wordnet
  3. 3
    a gelatinous substance secreted by plants wordnet

Example

More examples

"Malt liquors […] are distinguished from wine, chiefly by the larger quantity of mucilage and saccharine matter […]"

Etymology

From Middle English muscilage, mussillage, from Middle French mucilage (“viscous substance found in vegetable material”), from Late Latin mūcilāgō (“musty or moldy juice”). See Greek μούχλα (moúchla, “mold”), and related derivatives, for example mushroom, from *meus- (“mosses, mold, mildew”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.