mores

1. 1
   nounplural

   Moral norms and customs that a community follows by common acceptance rather than by any written law.

   Marrying outside the faith violated the deepest mores of the village.

   Travelers who ignore local mores often give offense without realizing it.

   Similarcustoms, conventions, norms, traditions

   Note

   A Latin plural that English borrowed whole: mōrēs, "ways, character, morals", is the plural of mōs. English uses no singular, and a singular more is nonstandard, so treat the word as plural: the village's mores were strict. Philippa Foot noted in 1973 that morality itself comes from mos and still keeps that tie to a society's rules of behavior. Its doublet is moeurs.

2. 2
   USMORZ/mɔɹz/UKUKMAWZ/mɔːz/US

   noun

   Plural of more. In old or dialect use, a more is a root or a plant.

   Note

   A plural from a different word altogether: more, a noun for a root or stock, or a plant, and once for a carrot or parsnip. The root and plant meanings live on only in dialect, and the vegetable meaning is obsolete, so this plural is rare. It shares its spelling with the Latin word for customs. Mentions of hedges, soil or garden beds signal that roots are meant.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of more.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a transitive verb meaning "to root up", so it always takes an object: she mores the stumps. In meaning it is the action behind the plural for roots, because one mores what that noun names. The object that follows is also what separates it from the word for customs when the two spellings meet.

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