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mildew.

A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɪl.djuː/UK/ˈmɪl.d(j)u/US

  1. A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mélit Proto-Germanic *mili Proto-West Germanic *mili Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂-der.? Proto-Germanic *dawwą Proto-West Germanic *dauw Proto-West Germanic *milidauw Old English mildēaw Middle English myldew English mildew From Middle English myldew, from Old English mildēaw, meledēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *milidauw, from *mili (“honey”) + *dauw (“dew”). Compare West Frisian moaldau, Dutch meeldauw, German Mehltau. More at dew.

verb/ˈmɪl.djuː/UK/ˈmɪl.d(j)u/US

  1. To taint with mildew.

    transitive

  2. To become tainted with mildew.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mélit Proto-Germanic *mili Proto-West Germanic *mili Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂-der.? Proto-Germanic *dawwą Proto-West Germanic *dauw Proto-West Germanic *milidauw Old English mildēaw Middle English myldew English mildew From Middle English myldew, from Old English mildēaw, meledēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *milidauw, from *mili (“honey”) + *dauw (“dew”). Compare West Frisian moaldau, Dutch meeldauw, German Mehltau. More at dew.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.