Skip to main content
bread mold

bread mold

3.7
A common fungus that often grows on bread and looks fuzzy
  • noun
  • /brɛd moʊld/
  • US
translation icon : moho del pan
  • She noticed that the bread mold spread rapidly in the damp kitchen, covering the loaves.

Examples

  • The bread mold had invaded and colonized her central nervous system.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Pasteur must have felt when he held up the petri dish and saw that the bread mold had vanquished the disease.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • The bread mold grew quickly on the slice of stale bread, forming a fuzzy gray layer.

  • After leaving the sandwich out for a few days, a patch of bread mold appeared on the bread.

Synonyms

mold
vsbread mold
  • US
70 4.2

A fungus that grows as a fuzzy or slimy layer on damp things

is a specific type that appears on baked starchy foods rather than damp surfaces
rhizopus
vsbread mold
  • Specialized
1 9.9

A common mold that grows on old bread, fruit, and vegetables

is the same genus but grows mainly on baked starchy foods

Surface Forms

bread mold singular
bread molds plural

Morphology

bread + mold

The meaning is a straightforward composition of 'bread' (a baked food) and 'mold' (a fuzzy fungus): a fungus that grows on bread. This literal, compositional relationship is cross-linguistically common and follows normal noun + noun naming patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the expression.

Etymology

The noun bread mold is a simple image: fuzzy mold growing on a slice of old bread. That's why it means 'a common mold that grows on bread and similar foods'.