Word.ws English Dictionary

egg

/ɛɡ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

South Asia/(j)ɛɡ/

egg noun: an approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.

egg: an approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other...
Image: Roger Culos, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

egg (countable and uncountable, plural eggs)

  1. An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
    • The Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ yᵉ wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Job xxxix:[13–15]...
    • [T]hinke him as a Serpents egge, / VVhich hatch'd, vvould as his kinde grovv mischieuous; / And kill him in the ſhell.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    1. (countable, specifically) The (usually) non-developing, edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food.
      • We made a big omelette with three eggs for breakfast.
      • I should determine the minimal amount of egg required to make good mayonnaise.
    2. (broadly, countable) A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
  2. (also) Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
    • In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail...1981, William Irwin Thompson, “Hominization”, in The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture (A Lindisfarne Series Book), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s...
    • Although they serve the same function across the plant, animal and fungal kingdoms, sperm and eggs vary wildly in their structure and biochemistry, even among closely related species. […] Many genes that determine sperm and egg structure and biochemistry are rapidly evolving, constantly changing...2013 May-June, Katrina G. Claw, “Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC...
    Synonyms:
    ovum
  3. (countable) A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
    • His ſtomacke vvas queaſie (for comming there Coacht) / The jogging had caus’d ſome crudities riſe; / To help it he call’d for a Puritan poacht, / That uſed to turne up the egg’s of his eyes.1621 August 13 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Ben Jonson, “The Masque of the Gypsies”, in Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […]...
    • There vvas taken a great Glaſs-bubble, vvith a long neck; (ſuch as Chymiſts are vvont to call a Philoſophical Egg) vvhich being fill'd vvith common VVater till the Liquor reach'd about a ſpan above the bubble, and a piece of Paper being there paſted on, vvas put unſtop'd into the Receiver, […]1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, “[Experiment 20]”, in New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall...
    1. A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.
    2. Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
    3. A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.
    4. (dated) A bomb or mine.
    5. A would-be spark, especially one created by an overweight spaceship and that leads to a pattern's destruction.
    6. A golf ball.
      • But Olga continued to work through her large bucket of balls. Ninety percent of them came to rest in exactly the same spot—dead center, between 150 and 175 yards. So tightly bunched were her balls out there it looked like someone had overturned a bucket of eggs.2014 January 14, Bruce Grierson, “12: Shadows”, in What Makes Olga Run: The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us About Living Longer, Happier Lives, Henry Holt and...
  4. (dated, figuratively, informal) A person; a fellow.
    • a bad egg a good egg a tough egg Cheerio, old egg!
    • 'Good egg!' quoth Moorshed, and brought his hand down on the wide shoulders with the smack of a beaver's tail.1903, Rudyard Kipling, “‘Their Lawful Occasions’—Part II”, in Traffics and Discoveries, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1904, →OCLC, page 138
  5. (derogatory, ethnic, figuratively, rare, slur) A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.
  6. (Internet, dated, derogatory, figuratively) A user of the microblogging service Twitter identified by the default avatar (historically an image of an egg (sense 1.1.1)) rather than a custom image; hence, a newbie or noob.
  7. (figuratively, transgender slang) A person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender, who has not yet come out as transgender, or who is in the early stages of transitioning.
    • That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.2018, Casey Plett, edited by Susan Safyan, Little Fish, Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, →ISBN, page 24
    • So I remember being told, in the very early part of my transition, that I had been, until now, an egg, and—as powerfully rooted in a belief in latency as I found myself[.]2020, Grace Lavery, “Egg Theory's Early Style”, in Transgender Studies Quarterly, page 384
  8. (broadly, figuratively, transgender slang) One's lack of awareness that one is transgender.
    • to crack someone's egg
  9. (New Zealand, derogatory, figuratively) A foolish or obnoxious person.
    • Shut up, you egg!
  10. (derogatory, figuratively, obsolete) A young person.
    • VVhat you Egge? / Yong fry of Treachery?c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  11. (archaic, figuratively) Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
    • [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]a. 1658 (date written), George Daniel, “Trinarchodia. The Raigne of Henry the Fourth.”, in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of George Daniel, Esq. of Beswick, Yorkshire. (1616–1657)...
    • In ſhort, the Rebellion had been Cruſh'd in the Egg; and One Seaſonable Act of Rigour, had Sav'd the King, the Monarchy, the Church, and the Three Kingdoms.1683 June 5 (Gregorian calendar), Roger L’Estrange, “The State of the City of London, in the Late Rebellion. […]”, in The Observator, in Dialogue, volume I, number 345, London: […] J. Bennet, for...
  12. (figuratively) One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".
    • This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.2015, Charles Smutz, Angelos Stavrou, “Preventing Exploits in Microsoft Office Documents through Content Randomization”, in Herbert Bos, Fabian Monrose, Gregory Blanc, editors, Research in Attacks...

Verb (1)

egg (third-person singular simple present eggs, present participle egging, simple past and past participle egged)

  1. (transitive) To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).
    • The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.
    • The students were caught egging the principal’s car as a prank.
  2. (transitive) To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.
    • After I cut the tubing, I found that I had slightly egged it in the vise.
  3. (transitive) To coat (a food ingredient) with or dip (a food ingredient) in beaten egg (noun sense 1.1.1) during the process of preparing a dish.
    • "Jemima, Jemima!—ve'll ha'e the viting biled instead of fried." "Ca'n't, marm," replied Jemima, "they be all hegged and crumbed, with their tails in their mouths."[1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter I, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 8
    • Then mask another large piece with currant jelly, cover it as before, and after egging the edges, roll them over some coarse sugar, and put them immediately in the oven. Join the remaining pieces in the same manner, two and two, and after egging the edges as before, roll them alternately on...1834, M[arie-]A[ntoine] Carême, edited by John Porter, The Royal Parisian Pastrycook and Confectioner: […], London: F. J. Mason, […], →OCLC, page 163
  4. (intransitive) To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.
  5. (England, dialectal, intransitive, vulgar) To conceive a child, especially recklessly.
    • I was out with my girlfriend in Birmingham, when some colorful local told us not to egg.

Verb (2)

egg (third-person singular simple present eggs, present participle egging, simple past and past participle egged)

  1. (transitive, obsolete except in egg on) To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).
    • [Y]it haue vvee one thing in our ſelues and of our ſelues, (euen originall ſinne, concupiſcence or luſt) vvhich neuer ceaſeth too egge vs and allure vs from God, and too ſtaine vs vvith all kinde of vnclennes: […]1571, Arthur Golding, “To the Right Honorable and His Verie Good Lord Edward de Vere Erle of Oxinford, […]”, in John Calvin, translated by Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of Dauid and Others. With M....
    • Hope like a ſpurre pricketh forvvard, feare like a bridle reſtraineth, hope eggeth onvvard vnto vertue, feare pulleth backe from vice, hope incites vs to obſerue the lavv, feare makes vs feare to trãſgreſſe the lavve.1603, Matthew Kellison, “The First Chapter Sheweth How the Reformers Take Away Hope of Heauen and Feare of Hell, and Consequently Open the Gapp to All Vice”, in A Survey of the New Religion...
    Synonyms:
    edge, provoke, tempt

Proper noun capitalized: Egg

Egg

  1. A surname.
  2. (informal) A Koenigsegg car.
  3. (humorous, Dragon Age fandom slang) The character Solas from the Dragon Age franchise (referring to his baldness).
    • Heh, i don't think she was that cunning to begin with, but romancing the Egg has rubbed off on her ;D.2015 October 10, SerNugll, Reddit
    • I'm a big fan of the Egg because he's so complex and intriguing.2017 November 8, GreenDragonPatriot, Reddit
  4. A market town in Bregenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria.
  5. A municipality in Uster district, Zürich canton, Switzerland.

Noun (2) capitalized: EGG

EGG (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of electroglottography.

egg meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

egg in Hindi

approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development
अंडा aṇḍā, डिंब ḍimb, अंड aṇḍ
edible egg of a domestic fowl; the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food
अंडा aṇḍā, डिंब ḍimb

egg in Tamil

approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development
முட்டை muṭṭai, மொட்டு moṭṭu, இலீக்கை ilīkkai
thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg
முட்டை muṭṭai
edible egg of a domestic fowl; the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food
முட்டை muṭṭai
swelling on one’s head resulting from an injury
வீக்கம் vīkkam

egg in Marathi

approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development
अंडे aṇḍe
edible egg of a domestic fowl; the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food
अंड aṇḍa

egg in Urdu

approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development
اَنْڈا anḍā, تُخْم tuxm
edible egg of a domestic fowl; the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food
اَنْڈا anḍā
More languagesFewer languages
egg in Bengali
ডিম ḍim, আণ্ডা anḍa, বয়দা boẏoda
egg in Telugu
గుడ్డు guḍḍu
egg in Malayalam
മുട്ട muṭṭa
egg in Kannada
ಮೊಟ್ಟೆ moṭṭe
egg in Punjabi
ਆਂਡਾ āṇḍā
egg in Gujarati
ઇંડા iṇḍā
egg in Odia
ଅଣ୍ଡା aṇḍā
egg in Sanskrit
अण्ड aṇḍa
egg in Sinhala
බිත්තර bittara
egg in Assamese
কণী koni
egg in Nepali
अण्डा aṇḍā
egg in Pashto
هګۍ hëgëy
egg in Tagalog
itlog
egg in Arabic
بَيْض bayḍ, بَيْضَة bayḍa, بيض bēḍ, بيضة bēḍa
egg in Malay
telur
egg in Indonesian
telur
egg in Persian
تُخْم toxm, تُخْمِ مُرْغ toxm-e morġ
egg in Thai
ไข่ kài
egg in Vietnamese
trứng
egg in Myanmar
ဥ u., ကြက်ဥ krak-u.
Sindhi
آنو aano
Dhivehi
ބިސް bis
Dzongkha
སྒཽང་རྡོག sgaung rdog

Examples of egg in a sentence

  • The farmer offered me some fresh eggs, but I told him I was allergic to egg.
  • [T]hey are vp already, and cal for Egges and butter, they vvil avvay preſently.c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for...
  • I was 5 moneth in France before I saw a boyled or roasted egge.1665–1667, John Lauder; Lord Fountainhall, “Journal in France 1665–1667”, in Donald Crawford, editor, Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord...
  • Eggs are perhaps the higheſt, moſt nouriſhing and exalted of all animal Food, and moſt indigeſtible, becauſe no body can take and digeſt the ſame Quantity of them as of other Food.1732, John Arbuthnot, “Practical Rules of Diet in the Various Constitutions and Diseases of Human Bodies. Chapter I. Of the Different...
  • A round, black, shining face is hers, so glossy as to suggest the idea that she might have washed over with white of eggs, like one of her own tea rusks.1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “An Evening in Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I...

All 40 example sentences with egg

Synonyms of egg

All synonyms of egg

Forms of egg

Noun
pluraleggs
alternative form (obsolete)egge
Verb
third-person singular presenteggs
present participleegging
past participleegged
pastegged
second-person singular present (archaic)eggest
second-person singular past (archaic)eggedst
third-person singular present (archaic)eggeth
alternative form (dialectal)agg

Plural of egg: eggs

Origin of egg

The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to consume”). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum. Cognates Cognate with North Frisian ai (“egg”), Saterland Frisian Oai (“egg”), West Frisian aai, aei (“egg”), Bavarian Oa (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), German Low German Ai, Ägg (“egg”), Limburgish ei, Éï (“egg”), Luxembourgish Ee (“egg”), Mòcheno oi (“egg”), Vilamovian e (“egg”), Yiddish איי (ey, “egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk egg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Crimean Gothic ada (“egg”); also Breton vi (“egg”), Cornish oy (“egg”), Welsh wy (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”), Greek αβγό (avgó), αυγό (avgó, “egg”), Albanian vo (“egg”), Belarusian and Russian яйцо́ (jajcó, “egg”), Bulgarian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Czech vejce (“egg”), Macedonian јајце (jajce, “egg”), Polish jajo (“egg”), Serbo-Croatian ја́јце, jájce (“egg”)...

From Middle English eggen (“to urge on; to entice, incite, lure, tempt; to encourage, exhort, stimulate; (reflexive) to bestir (oneself); to challenge, taunt; to enrage, irritate”), from Old English eggian (“to egg, excite”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite, egg on”), from egg (“an edge”), from Proto-Germanic *agjō (“a corner; an edge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”). Cognates * Danish ægge, egge (“to incite, egg on; to excite, rouse”) * Swedish egga (“to excite, egg on”) * Faroese eggja (“to incite, egg on; to sharpen”) * Icelandic eggja (“to incite, egg on”) * Old English ġeeġġian (“to incite, egg on”) * Old Frisian eggia (“to fence”) * Middle Low German eggen (“to sharpen”) * Old High German ungiekkōt (“unworked, unformed”) * Middle High German ecken (“to sharpen”), German ecken (archaic) Compare typologically another cognate: Russian поощря́ть (pooščrjátʹ), akin to Russian о́стрый (óstryj), ultimately from the same PIE root. Also compare typologically noncognate: Bulgarian потиквам (potikvam), Czech nabádat (“urge, exhort”), Russian подстрека́ть (podstrekátʹ).

Words formed from egg

Phrases with egg

155 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with egg

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about egg

What does egg mean?
Egg means an approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
What is egg in Hindi?
Egg in Hindi is अंडा (aṇḍā), डिंब (ḍimb), अंड (aṇḍ). See Egg meaning in Hindi.
How do you use egg in a sentence?
The farmer offered me some fresh eggs, but I told him I was allergic to egg.
What part of speech is egg?
Egg can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce egg?
Egg is pronounced /ɛɡ/.
What is the plural of egg?
The plural of egg is eggs.

Words near egg in the dictionary

  1. egests
  2. EGF
  3. EGFR
  4. eGFRs
  5. EGFs
  6. egg
  7. egg and dart
  8. egg and spoon race
  9. egg and spoon races
  10. egg banjo
  11. egg banjos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: egg (page history and authors); Egg (page history and authors); EGG (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-egg.ogg, En-us-egg.ogg.

Cite this entry: “egg.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/egg. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.