morass

noun

mo·​rass mə-ˈras 

mȯ-

1

: marsh, swamp

2

a

: a situation that traps, confuses, or impedes

a legal morass

b

: 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.

Synonyms

• entanglement
• mesh(es)
• net
• noose
• quagmire
• quicksand
• snare
• tanglement
• toil(s)
• trap
• web

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

For such writers and thinkers, including Jean-François Lyotard, Hannah Arendt, and Heinrich Blücher, history felt like a betrayal in which former traditions and institutions had collapsed, leaving behind a morass of emptiness and fractured communities. —Ben Woollard, JSTOR Daily, 4 Dec. 2024

He’s principally defined by having no clear place to be, which can be rich territory for psychological texture — or a narrative morass that bogs everything down. —Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 16 July 2024

Deciding what kind of data to mine is a morass of its own, too. —Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 3 Sep. 2019

Sadly, there seems to be no end in sight for this morass of mounting legal disputes. —Vlad Drazdovich, Sun Sentinel, 8 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

Dutch moeras, modification of Old French maresc, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English mersc marsh — more at marsh

First Known Use

1655, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

morass

noun

mo·​rass mə-ˈras 

1

: marsh, swamp

2

: a situation that traps, confuses, or hinders