1. fast-growing fungus with a round flatfish head and a stalk, of which some kinds can be eaten.
2. spread or increase in number rapidly.
how do we use it?
new housing estates have mushroomed on the edge of the town.
word quiz
today we are featuring the noun, but "mushroom" can also function as another part of speech. what other part of speech do you think "mushroom" can be?
a. interjection
b. verb
c. adverb
d. pronoun
key
[b]
caps off to you if you picked answer b, verb! mushrooms tend to grow very quickly, and that tendency gave rise to the verb "mushroom," which means "to appear or develop suddenly or increase rapidly." that verb is only about 100 years old, much younger than the noun, which dates back to the 1500s. despite corny jokes suggesting otherwise (such as, "what room can you never enter? a mushroom"), there's no connection between the word "room" and the word "mushroom." english adopted the noun "mushroom" from the french word "mousseron," which itself came from the latin word "mussirio."
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