Standard Lemma guide

mycelium

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /maɪˈsi.li.əm/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -iːliəm

1

noun

Meaning 1

The vegetative part of any fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, threadlike hyphae, often underground.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the vegetative part of a fungus consisting of a mass of branching threadlike hyphae

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: plant part, plant structure

Narrower terms: sclerotium

History

Etymology

From New Latin mycelium; synchronically, myc- + -el- + -ium, where the infix -el- is of unknown origin, perhaps introduced from a rebracketing of epithelium.

Across languages

Translations

39 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: miceli — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Chinese Mandarin: 菌絲 /菌丝 (jūnsī) — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Chinese Mandarin: 菌根 — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Czech: podhoubí — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Czech: mycelium — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Esperanto: micelio — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Estonian: niidistik — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Estonian: seeneniidistik — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Estonian: mütseel — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Finnish: sienirihmasto — vegetative part of a fungus
  • French: mycélium — vegetative part of a fungus
  • German: Myzel — vegetative part of a fungus
  • German: Myzelium — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Hebrew: תַּפְטִיר (taftír) — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Hungarian: micélium — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Hungarian: szövedék — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Hungarian: gombaszövedék — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Hungarian: tenyésztest — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Icelandic: mýsli — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Irish: mícéiliam — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Italian: micelio — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Latvian: sēņotne — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Latvian: micēlijs — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Lithuanian: grybiena — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Norwegian Bokmål: mycel — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: mycel — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Occitan: micèli — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Polish: grzybnia — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Portuguese: micélio — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Romanian: miceliu — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Russian: мице́лий (micélij) — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Russian: грибни́ца (gribníca) — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Slovene: micelij — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Slovene: podgobje — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Spanish: micelio — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Swedish: mycel — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Tagalog: sanghiblayan — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Ukrainian: грибни́ця (hrybnýcja) — vegetative part of a fungus
  • Ukrainian: міце́лій (micélij) — vegetative part of a fungus