Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

worm

/wɝm/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.77 in modern English

Syllables
worm
IPA
/wɝm/
9
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar.

Archaic

noun

Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake (cf. “dragon”; blindworm, slowworm, “legless lizard”), snail, or caterpillar.

Archaic; Informal

noun

A contemptible or devious being.

noun

A self-replicating program that propagates through a network by copying itself, differing from a virus which seeks to propagate by inserting its code into other executable files.

Example Sentences

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *wurmiz Proto-West Germanic *wurmi Old English wyrm Middle English worm English worm From Middle English werm, wirm, worm, worme, wrim, wurm, wyrm, wyrme, from Old English weorm, wurm, wyrm, from Proto-West Germanic *wurmi, from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz (“worm; snake”), from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis (“worm; larva”), possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English. (computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider. Cognates Germanic cognates include North Frisian wörem, wörm, Würem (“worm”), Saterland Frisian Wurm, Wúurm (“worm”), West Frisian wjirm (“worm”), Alemannic German Wüüre (“worm”), Cimbrian bórm (“worm”), burm (“snake”), Dutch worm, wurm (“worm”), German Gewürm (“vermin”), Wurm (“worm”), Low German Worm (“worm”), Luxembourgish Wuerm (“worm”), Mòcheno burm (“snake”), Vilamovian vūəm, wüm (“worm”), Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem, “worm”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish orm (“worm”), Faroese and Icelandic ormur (“worm”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“worm”), yrme, yrmle (“female snake with offspring”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌼𐍃 (waurms, “snake”), Kildin Sami уррьм (urr’m, “gadfly larva”), Skolt Sami uʹrmm (“gadfly larva”). Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμοξ (rhómox), ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”).

Origin

Word Breakdown

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /wɝm/
  • British English: /wɜːm/

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Frequently Paired Words

Synonyms

Homonyms

Rhymes With

Questions

How do you pronounce worm?
The recorded pronunciation is /wɝm/.
What does worm mean?
A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
Where does worm come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce worm

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