morass

noun

mo·rass mə-ˈras

mȯ-

Synonyms of morass next

: marsh, swamp

: a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes

a legal morass

: an overwhelming or confusing mass or mixture

a morass of traffic jams—

Mary Roach

morassy

mə-ˈra-sē

mȯ-

adjective

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The Swampy History of Morass

We won't swamp you with details: morass comes from the Dutch word moeras, which itself derives from an Old French word, maresc, meaning “marsh.” Morass has been part of English for centuries, and in its earliest uses was a synonym of swamp or marsh. (That was the sense Robert Louis Stevenson used when he described Long John Silver emerging from “a low white vapour that had crawled during the night out of the morass” in Treasure Island.) Imagine walking through a thick, muddy swamp: it's easy to compare such slogging to an effort to extricate yourself from a sticky situation. By the mid-19th century, morass had gained a figurative sense, and could refer to any predicament that was as murky, confusing, or difficult to navigate as a literal swamp.

Examples of morass in a Sentence

advised against becoming involved in that country's civil war, warning that escape from that morass might prove nigh impossible the distracted driver had driven his car off the road and into a morass

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Sadly, there seems to be no end in sight for this morass of mounting legal disputes. —

Vlad Drazdovich, Sun Sentinel, 8 May 2024 Stuck in the middle of this morass are Twitter’s content moderators, who must abide by current rules as the platform continues to operate but are conscious that Twitter’s new owner appears to be touting a fundamentally different approach to acceptable speech. —

Chris Stokel-Walker, WIRED, 27 Apr. 2022 Those losses sank her into a morass of regret and substance use, which spurred a break from the industry to recollect. —

Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 5 Nov. 2024 Even far from the morass of toxic politics, misinformation and conspiracy theories, this software is eroding our trust in what’s true and displacing it with bizarre hallucinations. —

Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for morass