morass means A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen. It carries an Arena rating of 1883, earned across 21 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, morass ranks #13 of 13,330 for Most Elegant Words, #15 of 13,330 for Most Malleable Words, #24 of 13,330 for Most Vivid Words, #67 of 13,330 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
morass is pronounced /məˈɹæs/.
Why “morass” is a great word
A soft, wet tract of ground such as a marsh or fen, or any situation that entraps or hampers progress. From Dutch *moeras* ("marsh, fen"), an alteration influenced by Dutch *moer* ("moor") of Middle Dutch *marasch* ("marsh"), itself from Old French *mareis*, from Proto-West Germanic *marisk* ("marshy"), first attested in English c. 1650s. Unlike a "marsh," a neutral wetland, or a "quagmire," a violently treacherous bog, a morass is a broader, more insidious stagnation. It is the cold, sucking grip on a boot that will not release, the bureaucratic paperwork that multiplies overnight, and the dense, clinging inertia of a life grown routine—the slow, wearying capture of forward motion by a thousand small, stubborn resistances.
Etymology
From Dutch moeras (“marsh, swamp”), an alteration (with influence from Dutch moer (“moor”)) of a direct descendant of Middle Dutch marasch (“marsh”). The Middle Dutch word is a borrowing from Old French mareis, from Proto-West Germanic *marisk. Doublet of marish and marsh, and linked in part to moor. Compare quagmire.
noun
- A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.“Seven miles to the north of Venice, the banks of sand, which near the city rise little above low-water mark, attain by degrees a higher level, and knit themselves at last into fields of salt morass, raised here and there into shapeless mounds, and intercepted by narrow creeks of sea.”
- Anything that entraps or makes progress difficult.“I wrote to Sacramento about that historical marker, and they've been kicking it around their bureaucratic morass for months.”
Words closest in meaning
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