morass

[ muh-ras ]

noun

1. a tract of low, soft, wet ground.
2. a marsh or bog.
3. marshy ground.
4. any confusing or troublesome situation, especially one from which it is difficult to free oneself; entanglement.

morass

/ məˈræs /

noun

1. a tract of swampy low-lying land
2. a disordered or muddled situation or circumstance, esp one that impedes progress

Word History and Origins

Origin of morass¹

1645–55; < Dutch moeras, alteration (by association with moer marsh; moor ¹ ) of Middle Dutch maras < Old French mareis < Germanic. See marsh

Word History and Origins

Origin of morass¹

C17: from Dutch moeras, ultimately from Old French marais marsh

Example Sentences

For more than a century, researchers have dug for answers, seemingly found them, argued about them and searched some more, resulting in a morass of confounding information.

From Washington Post

They demonstrated you could do things citywide, and get out of the morass of arguing with the community planning groups.

From Voice of San Diego

Thinking about it this way keeps you out of the whole judging-not-judging morass, too, which I encourage at every opportunity.

From Washington Post

It’s hard not to see them as an unconscious reminder of the morass of “very old politics” he is trying to reject.

From Ozy

Companies fear that by adopting it they may be inadvertently stepping into an ethical, reputational or regulatory morass.

From Fortune

Meanwhile, Russia is sinking ever deeper into its economic morass.

From The Daily Beast

The program paid Thai formers above-market rates for rice, but became bogged down in a financial morass.

From The Daily Beast

These groups tend to push for a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian morass.

From The Daily Beast

She took up the miserable chore of attending dodgy networking events, but out of that morass came the character of Tallah.

From The Daily Beast

The facts on the ground are anything but auspicious for America injecting itself into an intra-Arab morass.

From The Daily Beast

In that part, it was little better than a morass, from the occasional overflowing of the waters at the rainy seasons.

From Project Gutenberg

He took them across the morass, about a mile wide, over a causeway of branches, which the rear demolished as they passed.

From Project Gutenberg

The graves of thousands of English soldiers had been dug in the pestilential morass of Dundalk.

From Project Gutenberg

He is like a strong man struggling in a morass: every effort to extricate himself only sinks him deeper and deeper.

From Project Gutenberg

At the foot of the hill lay a deep morass, covered with the nelumbo and other aquatic plants.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• chaos
• quagmire
• tangle