Meaning & use
mortar
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Meanings
noununcountable
A soft mixture of cement, sand, and water that hardens and holds bricks or stones together in a wall.
Grammar: No plural in this sense; it names the material itself, like 'concrete'.
Patterns
- mix mortar
- a layer of mortar
- mortar between the bricks
The bricklayer spread mortar along the row before laying the next brick.
Old walls often need fresh mortar where the joints have crumbled.
They mixed the mortar in a small tub with a trowel.
nouncountable
A heavy bowl, usually of stone or ceramic, in which substances are crushed with a pestle.
Grammar: Countable here: one bowl is 'a mortar', two are 'mortars'.
Patterns
- a mortar and pestle
- grind something in a mortar
She crushed the garlic and salt together in a mortar.
Pharmacists once ground powders by hand in a stone mortar.
The set includes a wooden mortar and a matching pestle.
nouncountablemilitary
A short, wide cannon that fires shells high into the air so they drop onto a target.
Grammar: Countable and used mainly in military contexts.
Patterns
- fire a mortar
- a mortar attack
- mortar fire
The soldiers took cover when mortar fire began.
A mortar can hit targets hidden behind hills or walls.
The report described a night of heavy shelling and mortar rounds.
Word forms
| plural | mortars |
|---|
Common combinations
- cement mortar
- Cement mortar sets hard within a few hours.
- mortar and pestle
- Crush the spices with a mortar and pestle.
- mortar fire
- The village was struck by mortar fire overnight.
- point the mortar
- He pointed the mortar at the joints and smoothed them.
- mix mortar
- You should mix mortar in small amounts so it does not dry out.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cement
- Cement is the powder that is one ingredient of mortar, so it is not a full substitute for the mixture itself.
- grout
- Grout is a thinner mixture used to fill narrow gaps between tiles, while mortar is thicker and holds larger units together.
- howitzer
- A howitzer is a larger artillery gun with a longer barrel; a mortar is shorter and fires at a steeper angle.
Word family
- mortarboard noun
- The flat square academic cap, named after the board a bricklayer uses to carry mortar.
Commonly confused: mortar or motor?
mortar vs motor
Motor is a machine that produces movement; mortar is the building mixture or the bowl. They sound similar but are unrelated.
Practice
The workers used a thick layer of _____ to hold the bricks together.
Choose one answer.
'Mortar' is the binding mixture for bricks. 'Mortuary' is a place for the dead and 'mortal' means subject to death, so neither fits a building context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mortar”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.