worm

CEFRB1

/wɜːm/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A small, soft animal with a long narrow body.

  2. 02

    verb

    To move slowly by twisting the body.

Examples

  • Even the smallest worm will turn if trodden on.

  • The early bird catches the worm.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any creeping or crawling animal, such as a snake, snail, or caterpillar.

  2. More loosely, any of various tubular invertebrates resembling annelids but not closely related to them, such as velvet worms, acorn worms, flatworms, or roundworms. See Appendix:English worms.

  3. A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.

More examples

In context

  • Don't try to run away, you little worm!

  • Those little wriggling worms are the larvae of flies who laid eggs here.

  • 1561, Geneva Bible, Acts 28:3-4, And when Paul had gathered a nomber of stickes, & laid them on the fyre, there came a viper out of the heat, and leapt on his hand. Now when the Barbarians sawe the worme hang on his hand, they said among them selues This man...

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After the heavy rain, the robin easily found a fat blank in the wet soil.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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...