worm
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "worm", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "worm" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "worm" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
worm is aEnglishnoun. It means: A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm. Pronounced /wɜːm/. Often confused with wow and wot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | worm |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wɜːm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #10,156 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for worm is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɜːm/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,156 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for worm, with forms such as "owrm", "womr", and "wormm". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wow", "wot", "wry", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“worm, snake”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing d… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is worm, spelled W-O-R-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
- 2More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms.
- 3Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.
- 4A type of wingless "dragon", especially a gigantic sea serpent or any kind of dragon.
- 5A type of wingless "dragon", especially a gigantic sea serpent or any kind of dragon.
- 6A contemptible or devious being.
- 7A self-replicating program that propagates through a network, differing from a virus in usually lacking any destructive effects.
- 8A graphical representation of the total runs scored across a number of overs.
- 9Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 10Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 11Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 12Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 13Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 14Anything helical, especially the thread of a screw.
- 15A maggot or any other insect larva with similar shape and behavior.
- 16An internal tormentor; something that gnaws or afflicts one’s mind with remorse.
- 17A strip of linked tiles sharing parallel edges in a tiling.
- 18The lytta.
- 19A dance, or dance move, in which the dancer lies on the floor and undulates the body horizontally thereby moving forwards.
Etymology
From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“worm, snake”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, 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 Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Swedish orm (“snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“earthworm or snake”), Danish orm and Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem). Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian var̃mas (“insect, midge”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owrm,womr,wormm,worrm,wrom,wworm
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for worm
Misspelling Variants of "worm"
Frequency rank: #10,156 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "worm"?
What does "worm" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "worm"?
How do you pronounce "worm"?
What is the origin of the word "worm"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: