glowworm
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.59 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The larva or wingless grub-like female of a beetle from the families Phengodidae or Lampyridae that gives out a green light from its abdomen.
Example Sentences
- "The glowworm shows the matin to be near And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire. Adieu, adieu, adieu! Remember me."
- "1604, William Alexander, The Alexandraean Tragedie, Act V, Scene 2, in The Monarchicke Tragedies, London: Ed. Blount, 1607, Some things afarre doe like the Glow-worme shine, That lookt to neere haue of that light no signe."
- "Glories (like glowe-wormes) a farre off, shine bright, But look’d to neere, haue neither heate, nor light."
- "Ye Glo-worms, whose officious Flame To wandring Mowers shows the way, That in the Night have lost their aim, And after foolish Fires do stray;"
- "1819, William Wordsworth, “The Waggoner” Canto 1, in The Miscellaneous Poems of William Wordsworth, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1820, p. 7, Confiding Glow-worms, ’tis a night Propitious to your earth-born light!"
- "Young girls lie bedded soft or glide in their dreams, with rings and trousseaux, bridesmaided by glowworms down the aisles of the organplaying wood."
Etymology
From Middle English glouworm; equivalent to glow + worm. Compare cognate German Glühwurm; compare also firefly, lightning bug, and lanternfly.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: glouworm