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

Did you know?

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

American Idiot the album is still a potent political missive, a reminder of all the ways that art can speak truth to power — and somewhere in the morass of this new revival, there’s a nugget of that. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 18 Oct. 2024

In two and a half years of this morass, the regime has brought Russia back to the habits and mindset of the Stalinist era. —Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 15 Oct. 2024

In recent years, as Mugabe’s deputy, Mnangagwa sought ways out of Zimbabwe’s economic morass, courting multilateral financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and proposing reforms to encourage foreign investors to return. —Martin Meredith, Foreign Affairs, 13 Feb. 2018

Here, the end result is more of an erratic blend of survival drama, historical oddity, and petty domestic intrigue that boils down into a morass of standout moments dragged down by the film's weaknesses as a whole. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 8 Sep. 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