moult.
The process of shedding or losing a covering of fur, feathers or skin etc.
Meaning & usage
The process of shedding or losing a covering of fur, feathers or skin etc.
Some birds change colour during their winter moult.
The skin or feathers cast off during the process of moulting.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mey-? Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-der. Latin mūtōder. Old English *mutian Middle English mouten English moult From Middle English mouten, from Old English *mutian (attested in bemutian, “to exchange for”), from Latin mūtō (“to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange, abandon”). Doublet of mute and mutate. The unetymological ⟨l⟩ was introduced into the spelling by mistakenly assuming a French origin with -l- as in fault and vault; compare solder, which in contrast has an etymological ⟨l⟩ (from Latin solidāre, “to make solid“) but was historically pronounced without that grapheme's sound.
To undergo the process of shedding or losing a covering of hair or fur, feathers, skin, horns, etc, and replacing it with a fresh one; to change by moulting.
To shed in such a manner.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mey-? Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-der. Latin mūtōder. Old English *mutian Middle English mouten English moult From Middle English mouten, from Old English *mutian (attested in bemutian, “to exchange for”), from Latin mūtō (“to (re)move, change, vary, mutate, exchange, abandon”). Doublet of mute and mutate. The unetymological ⟨l⟩ was introduced into the spelling by mistakenly assuming a French origin with -l- as in fault and vault; compare solder, which in contrast has an etymological ⟨l⟩ (from Latin solidāre, “to make solid“) but was historically pronounced without that grapheme's sound.
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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.