POLL: How do you pronounce the word "mushy"?

In My Humble Opinion
1

As in this sentence: “If you boil macaroni too long, it will get mushy.”

  • Option 1: I pronounce “mushy” to rhyme with pushy, bushy, or tushie
  • Option 2: I pronounce “mushy” so the first syllable rhymes with slush, gush, lush, hush, or rush
  • Option 3: Both options 1 & 2 sound the same to me
  • Option 4: I’ve never said that word out loud and probably never will
  • Option 5: I don’t have an answer but I like surveys
  • Option X: Something else - explain in post

0 voters

This word turns up a lot in the many cooking shows and YouTube cooking videos that I watch.

2

It rhymes with slushie (or slushy, if you prefer. They’re both pronounced the same, whether you’re discussing the adjective or the frozen beverage at Kwik-E-Mart).

Where do I file a protest about this question being a matter of opinion?

3

Usually option 2, but occasionally option 1 and I can’t tell you when or why because I don’t know.

4

I use both. For UK Mushy Peas it’s option 2.
For things like a muddy river bank you sink into, that’s mushy option 1.

5

Option 1 sounded the most natural to me. I’m surprised to see that’s not the most common pronunciation. I guess I associate it with smoosh.

6

Mushy so the first syllable rhymes with slush.

It’s the only word that I say like that, though - in the London that mushy peas come from. Pushy, cushy, bushy have a different vowel. I guess gushy would rhyme with mushy, and so would rushy if that became a word, but for words that are already in common usage, mushy is an outlier.

7

No need to file a protest. I happen to think it’s a matter of opinion, too. This forum is called “In My Humble Opinion.” What’s eating you?

8

If you say mushy as in pushy, do you say mushrooms as in push-brooms?

9

To me, “pushy” pronunciation perhaps hyperbolically accentuates the texture; ewwww, it’s mushy. The other pronunciation is more like; meh, it’s mushy, that’s just the way it is.

10

I think I know what you’re saying. There is an onomatopoeic quality to “mushy” rhyming with “pushy.” Besides the slight ick factor, I don’t get it – does anybody refer to, say, cornmeal mush to rhyme with push?

11

Cornmeal mush isn’t mushy but if it were made incorrectly, I’d say, “ewww, this mush is mushy” with “mush” option 2 and “mushy” option 1.

Yep!

12

The Kwik-E-Mart sells Squishies. Now get the hell out and COME AGAIN!

13

Either way, or something in between. I don’t have a firm policy. The mushier something is, though, the more I lean to “rhymes with pushy”.

To the related question of how I handle my sled dog commands, I’ll need more time to answer.

14

This is exactly me. Most of the time #2, but sometimes #1.

ETA: Ack, I did the poll wrong. It’s actually the opposite for me. I’m mostly #1, sometimes #2.

15

I use both, but I don’t think they sound the same. It actually took me a bit to realize they are the same word.

I use the vowel in hush when talking about “mush” or things that are physically like mush. I use mooshy (vowel in push) when talking about things like a love poem.

I also might use mooshy to refer to something that I can easily smoosh (but isn’t necessarily a mush). But I think that’s just me leaving off the s.

16

Right. Mush. Mushy.

17

Option 1 usually. But sometimes 2. Depends on how I feel at the time.

18

No. Is there a reason I should? The same sequence of letters can be pronounced differently in different contexts – especially in English. And, besides, the “mush” in “mushy” is etymologically unrelated to the “mush” in “mushroom.”

19

Option 1 sounds like a Chinese pork dish.

20

It’s context-dependent. Mostly it’s /ˈmʌʃi/ , but mushy peas, specifically, are /ˈmʊʃi/