A.Word.A.Day --mucid

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Feb 23, 2026

This week’s theme
Words one letter apart

This week’s words
mucid

Physarum psittacinum, a species of slime mold

Photo: Barry Webb

Previous week’s theme
Words that sound dirty, but aren’t

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Mark Twain once said, “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter -- it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

To paraphrase him for our purposes: The difference between a word and another with just one letter different is the difference between being fuelled and being quelled.

For the next two weeks we’re exploring words separated by a single alphabetic hiccup. One letter, and the meaning wanders off into a completely different direction.

What other pairs can you come up with? Share your favorites below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. As always, include your location (city, state).

mucid

PRONUNCIATION:

(MYOO-sid)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Moldy, musty, or slimy.
2. Rotten; really bad.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin mucere (to be moldy). Earliest documented use: 1656.

USAGE:

“The way down was pesky, the rope made slick and mucid by the rains and fogs of those fifty years.”
Adriana C. Grigore; Done in the Mire; Fantasy & Science Fiction (Newark, New Jersey); Mar/Apr 2022.

“Before last week’s documentary on the German television channel WDR, which shone a light on the mucid dealings within the IAAF, [Lord Coe] published a manifesto that stressed the need for a fully independent drug-testing body.”
Sean Ingle; Athletics; The Guardian (London, UK); Dec 12, 2014.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience. -W.E.B. Du Bois, educator, civil rights activist, and writer (23 Feb 1868-1963)

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