plug
/plʌɡ/noun, verb
plug is spelled P-L-U-G: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, plug means “A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of plug is plugs.
How many letters and syllables are in plug?
| Letters | 4: P-L-U-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 14 times per million words; the 5,679th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is plug?
Plug appears 14 times per million words in written English, the 5,679th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce plug?
- US /plʌɡ/
- Australia /plɐɡ/
- /plʊɡ/
Plug has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-plug.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with plug?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as plug from its last stressed vowel (/ʌɡ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: gulp.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of plug
- plugs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- plugging participle, present
- plugged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does plug mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A pronged connecting device which fits into a mating socket, especially an electrical one.
I pushed the plug back into the electrical socket and the lamp began to glow again.
- 2
An electric socket: wall plug.
- 3
Any piece of wood, metal, or other substance used to stop or fill a hole.
Pull the plug out of the tub so it can drain.
- 4
USA flat oblong cake of cured and pressed tobacco; the tobacco that constitutes it.
Near-synonym: chewing tobacco
- 5
USslangA high, tapering silk hat.
- 6
USslangA worthless horse.
That sorry old plug is ready for the glue factory!
- 7
datedAny worn-out or useless article.
- 8
datedslangA book that fails to sell.
verb
- 1
To stop with a plug; to make tight by stopping a hole.
He attempted to plug the leaks with some caulk.
- 2
To promote (something, especially a product or service); to mention (something) as if promoting or advertising it.
The main guest on the show just kept plugging his latest movie: it got so tiresome.
- 3
informalTo persist or continue with something.
Near-synonym: plug away
- 4
slangTo shoot (someone) with a bullet.
- 5
slangTo have sex with; to penetrate sexually.
Near-synonyms: peg, rail
- 6
slangTo ingest a drug rectally.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Plug in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | fiche , bouchon , boucher, fermer, bourrer , faire la pub |
| German | Stecker , Stöpsel, Stopfen, Pfropfen, Pfropf, Spund |
| Portuguese | plugue , tampão |
| Spanish | enchufe, clavija, plug, plag, plog, ploga |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does plug come from?
From Dutch plug, from Middle Dutch plugge (“peg, plug”), from Old Dutch *pluggi, from Proto-West Germanic *plugi. Further origin unknown. Possibly from Proto-Germanic *plugjaz, but the word seems originally restricted to northern continental West Germanic. Perhaps ultimately from the same source as Dutch plag (“cut-out sod”), itself considered to be from a substrate. Compare German Low German Plüg, Norwegian plug (“peg, wedge”, probably borrowed from Middle Low German), German Pflock (“peg”, restricted to Central German and phonetically divergent).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).