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Added 9 October 2026

smut

/smʌt/ noun

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about smut at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink.
Destructive diseases of plants (especially cereal grasses) caused by fungi that produce black powdery masses of spores.
Any fungus of the order Ustilaginales.

verb

Make obscene.
This line in the play smuts the entire act
Stain with a dirty substance, such as soot.
Become affected with smut.
the corn smutted and could not be eaten

Origin

From Middle English smutten (“to defile, debase”), related to German Schmutz (“filth, dirt, smut”) and schmutzen (“to make dirty, stain”). Doublet of schmutz. Compare also Old English smitta (“smear; blot; mark; stain; pollution”), Old English besmītan (“to besmut; defile; dirty; pollute; contaminate”).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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