Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

midge

/mɪd͡ʒ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.76 in modern English

Syllables: midge
IPA: /mɪd͡ʒ/

9

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.

noun

A small, short or insignificant person.

noun

Any bait or lure designed to resemble a midge.

name

A female given name of rare usage, variant of Madge.

Example Sentences

""I am being eaten alive!" cried Pippin. "Midgewater! There are more midges than water!""
"Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota."

Etymology

From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English myġġ, myċġ (“midge, gnat, mosquito”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mu-, *mew- (“fly, midge”). The dialectal sense of "short person" was originally figurative, and gave rise to midget (“short person”) via the diminutive suffix -et, which has since become part of standard English with that meaning; this has caused midge to undergo rebracketing as a clipping of midget. Cognates * Scots mige (“midge”) * Saterland Frisian Määge (“gnat, mosquito”) * West Frisian mich (“fly, mosquito”) * West Flemish meezje (“midge, mosquito”) * Dutch mug (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Low German Mügge (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Mücke (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Swedish mygg, mygga (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Icelandic mý (“midge, gnat, fly”) The Proto-Indo-European root was also the source of * Latin musca * Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa) * Russian му́ха (múxa) * Latvian muša * Czech muchnička * Albanian mizë * Armenian մուն (mun)

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: mydge, myġġ, *muggju, *mugjō, *mū-

Inflected Forms

midges (plural) midgie (alternative, Northern England) midgy (alternative, Northern England) midgey (alternative, Northern England) minge (alternative, US)

Derived Forms

antimidge midgeling midgeproof midget midgey mugwort

Phrases

aphid midge apple leaf midge apple midge barley midge biting midge dung midge frog-biting midge fruit midge

Frequently Paired Words

gnat

Rhymes With

bridge ridge fridge abridge ethridge relig attridge akridge estridge sandwich luggage homage

Questions

How do you pronounce midge?: The recorded pronunciation is /mɪd͡ʒ/.
What does midge mean?: Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
Where does midge come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce midge

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “midge”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/mɪd͡ʒ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “midge”.
Repeat and practice — Say “midge” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.