Meaning & use
mussel
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Meaning
nouncountable
A small sea creature with a dark shell that can be eaten, often found attached to rocks or in riverbeds.
Grammar: Countable: one mussel, two mussels. Often used in the plural when talking about food.
Patterns
- a mussel
- mussels in something
- cook mussels
We collected mussels from the rocks at low tide.
The restaurant serves mussels in a white wine sauce.
Mussels are a popular seafood in many coastal regions.
Word forms
| plural | mussels |
|---|
Common combinations
- mussels in white wine
- The menu featured mussels in white wine as a starter.
- fresh mussels
- You should only cook fresh mussels that are tightly closed.
- a bowl of mussels
- He ordered a bowl of mussels and some bread.
- mussel shell
- She kept a mussel shell as a souvenir from the beach.
Synonyms and how they differ
Commonly confused: mussel or muscle?
mussel vs muscle
Muscle is body tissue that produces movement; mussel is the shellfish. They sound the same but are unrelated.
Practice
For dinner, we had steamed ______ with garlic and parsley.
Choose one answer.
'Mussels' is the correct plural of the shellfish. 'Muscles' refers to body tissue, 'mussles' is a misspelling, and 'mussel's' is a possessive form, not a plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mussel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.