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Does the word mucus have a plural? If so, how would it be spelled?

Question #121642. Asked by 29CoveRoad.

Shiningstar7
Answer has 2 votes
Shiningstar7
19 year member
91 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
muci

Number Singular Plural
nominative mūcus mūcī

link http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mucus

May 29 2011, 11:38 PM
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abechstein star
Answer has 3 votes
Currently Best Answer
abechstein star
16 year member
128 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
"Mucus" is a collective noun, like "blood" or "lymph" or "phlegm", and doesn't have a plural.
link http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mucus?view=uk

This site refers to nouns of this type as a "mass noun"; another site refers to them as "uncountable":
link http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/mucus

Let me elaborate a little: the English word "mucus" doesn't have a plural form, but the Latin word "mucus", from which the English word is taken, would have the plural form "muci" (though I can't imagine any plural usage in Latin, either).

Source: the above sites and 11 years of studying Latin.
The Wiktionary page cited earlier refers specifically to the Latin "mucus", which is why there's an apparent contradiction. That page also lists the English "mucus" as "uncountable".

May 29 2011, 11:40 PM
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