Word of the day · Monday, October 19, 2026

mucin

noun

A family of large proteins coated in sugar chains that give mucus its thick, slippery, gel-like texture.

Where it comes from

Coined in the 19th century from Latin mucus plus -in, the ending chemists use for many proteins and other compounds.

Worth knowing

Mucins line your stomach, lungs and eyes, and they are what keep a snail's trail from drying out. Each molecule can soak up many times its weight in water, which is why a small amount makes so much slime.

By the letters

• 5letters
• 2vowels (A E I O U)
• noneuncommon letters
• 5different letters

Playing it

MUCIN is one of the few five-letter words with a C sitting between two vowels and no E. The plural MUCINS is also a word, so an S below or after it extends it.

Anagrams

Words that use exactly the same letters as MUCIN. See anagram.

• cumin

Hooks

One letter added to make a new word (what is a hook), at the end: MUCINS.

One letter away

Words you get by changing a single letter, the steps of a word ladder.

• mucic
• mucid

In Unsaid

MUCIN was word of the day number 1 in Unsaid, a falling-letter word game where every player gets the same word on the same date. As a word it scores 500 points. Under the current rules, spelling it as the word of the day is worth a bonus of 9,000 reading down or 6,750 reading across, before any streak. How the bonus works.