Definition of MYCELIUM

Examples of mycelium in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adding fresh spawn annually will ensure that the mycelium stays vigorous. — Sunset, "How to Grow Mushrooms," 22 Jan. 2018 Mention of mushrooms conjure all sorts of images, but for Dutch textile designer Aniela Hoitink mushroom mycelium can be a course for fashion. — Rosemary Feitelberg | Wwd, latimes.com, "Mushroom-made fashion authority Aniela Hoitink talks global change-sparked innovation," 29 May 2018 Eight strangers, connected like a mushroom’s mycelium, could access each other’s emotions and psyches. — Rebecca Farley, refinery29.com, "Sense8 Series Finale Recap: Farewell, International Orgies!," 8 June 2018 Fungi into mycelium into hyphae into mycorrhizal networks into positive-feedback loops into this tree still standing despite the terrible damage. — David Gilbert, The New Yorker, "Fungus," 4 June 2017 Stirring in more wood chips will keep the mycelium growing for future harvests. — Sunset, "How to Grow Mushrooms," 22 Jan. 2018 In September, Ninela Ivanova, a British designer, and Sebastian Cox, a British furniture maker, exhibited hanging lamps and stools made of willow wood and mushrooms (or more technically, mycelium, the root network of fungi). — New York Times, "Trends in Design and Home Furnishings," 8 May 2018 Ironically, light-moderate rain won’t penetrate a deep mulch volcano, and worse, fungal mycelium decomposing the mulch can create hydrophobic mats that repel water. — Ellen Nibali, baltimoresun.com, "Garden Q&A: Mulch volcanoes are not what nature intended," 12 Apr. 2018 Not only will the Loft buildings be readily convertible to different uses, but they will also be insulated with mycelium! — Molly Sauter, The Atlantic, "Google’s Guinea-Pig City," 13 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'mycelium.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for mycelium

borrowed from New Latin, from myc- (from base of Greek mykēt-, mýkēs "mushroom, fungus") + -el- (of unknown origin) + -ium -ium — more at myco-

Note: Term introduced by the Austrian botanist and mycologist Leopold Trattinnick (1764-1849) in Fungi Austriaci, ad specimina viva cera expressi descriptiones ac historiam naturalem completam addidit Leopoldus Trattinnick/Oesterreichs Schwämme, nach lebendigen Originalen in Wachs gearbeitet mit Beschreibungen und einer ausführlichen Naturgeschichte, 1. Lieferung (Vienna, 1804). Trattinnick, who uses the word throughout the work, gives no indication of its derivation. His translation in the parallel vernacular columns is Schwammgewächs, literally, "mushroom growth." The reading of -el- as Greek hêlos "nail head, wart, callus," apparently first proposed in the Century Dictionary and copied by many dictionaries since, is improbable and in any case purely speculative. Somewhat more probable is the suggestion in the Oxford English Dictionary that the interposed -l- is after epithelium.

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