• (British) IPA: /məʊld/, /mɔʊld/
• (America) IPA: /moʊld/

From Middle English molde, from Old French modle, mole, from Latin modulus, from Latin modus.

mold (American spelling)

1. A hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.
2. A frame or model around or on which something is formed or shaped.
3. Something that is made in or shaped on a mold.
4. The shape or pattern of a mold.
5. General shape or form.

   the oval mold of her face

   • 1711, Alexander Pope, "The Temple of Fame", in The Works of Alexander Pope: New Ed. Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials, Collected in Part by John Wilson Croker. With Introd. and Notes by Whitwell Elwin, Volume 1, J.Murray, p.206

     Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:

     This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.

6. Distinctive character or type.

   a leader in the mold of her predecessors

7. A fixed or restrictive pattern or form.

   His method of scientific investigation broke the mold and led to a new discovery.

8. (architecture) A group of moldings.

   the arch mold of a porch or doorway;  the pier mold of a Gothic pier, meaning the whole profile, section, or combination of parts

9. (anatomy) A fontanelle.

• French: moule
• German: Form, Gussform
• Italian: stampo, calco
• Portuguese: molde
• Russian: литейная форма
• Spanish: molde, troquel

• Spanish: molde, modelo

• Italian: timballo
• Spanish: copia, reproducción, moldura

• German: Form
• Spanish: forma, patrón, moldura

• German: Form, Umriß, Gestalt
• Spanish: forma, patrón

• German: Typ, Type, Gestalt

mold (molds, present participle molding; simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To shape in or on a mold; to form into a particular shape; to give shape to.
   • 1978, Job 10:8-9, Old Testament, New International Version:

     Your hands shaped me and made me … Remember that you molded me like clay.

2. (transitive) To guide or determine the growth or development of; influence
   • 1963. Haile Selassie (translated)

     It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise, farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the example.

3. (transitive) To fit closely by following the contours of.
4. (transitive) To make a mold of or from (molten metal, for example) before casting.
5. (transitive) To ornament with moldings.
6. (intransitive) To be shaped in or as if in a mold.

   These shoes gradually molded to my feet.

• German: modellieren, modulieren, formen
• Italian: modellare, dare la forma
• Portuguese: moldar
• Russian: формова́ть
• Spanish: moldear, modelar, formar

• Portuguese: modelar
• Russian: лепи́ть

• Portuguese: moldar-se a

From Middle English mowlde, noun use and alteration of mowled, past participle of mowlen, moulen ("to grow moldy"), from Old Norse mygla (compare dialectal Danish mugle), from Proto-Germanic *muglōną, diminutive and denominative of *mukiz 'soft substance' (compare Old Norse myki, mykr ("cow dung")), from Proto-Indo-European *mewk-.

mold (American spelling)

1. A natural substance in the form of a woolly or furry growth of tiny fungi that appears when organic material lies for a long time exposed to (usually warm and moist) air.
2. A fungus that creates such colored, furry growths.

• French: moisissure moisi, mildiou
• German: Schimmel, Mehltau
• Italian: muffa
• Portuguese: mofo, bolor
• Russian: пле́сень
• Spanish: moho, mufa

mold (molds, present participle molding; simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. (transitive) To cause to become moldy; to cause mold to grow upon.
2. (intransitive) To become moldy; to be covered or filled, in whole or in part, with a mold.

• Spanish: florecerse, escalfecerse

From Middle English molde, from Old English molde, from Proto-Germanic *muldō (compare ofs molde, Middle Dutch moude, Dutch moude, obsolete German Molte, Norwegian Bokmål mold, and Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰), from Proto-Indo-European (compare Old Irish moll, Lithuanian mìltai), from *melh₂-.

mold

1. Loose friable soil, rich in humus and fit for planting.
2. (UK, dialectal, chiefly plural) Earth, ground.

• Spanish: tierra blanda

mold (molds, present participle molding; simple past and past participle molded) (American spelling)

1. To cover with mold or soil.

From Middle English molde, from Old English molda, molde, from Proto-West Germanic *moldō, from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥Hdʰṓ; exactly parallel to Sanskrit मूर्धन्.

mold (uncountable)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) The top or crown of the head.
   • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VII.] The Proëme.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC ↗, page 152 ↗:

     What a while continueth the mould and crowne of our heads to beate and pant, before our braine is well ſetled […]

1. A town/and/wcomm in and the county town of Flintshire (OS grid ref SJ2364).
2. An unincorporated community in Douglas County, Washington.
3. Surname.