Word.ws English Dictionary

galleyworm

galleyworm noun: a centipede or millipede.

Noun

galleyworm (plural galleyworms)

  1. A centipede or millipede.
    • The larvae are elongated and in many cases much like the more flattened millipedes or galleyworms in appearance.1936, Rennie Wilbur Doane, Edwin Cooper Van Dyke, Willard Joseph Chamberlin, Forest Insects, page 212
    • that evil idiot, who walked slowly dragging himself along like a galleyworm.1972, René Maran, Batouala: A True Black Novel, page 64

Forms of galleyworm

pluralgalleyworms

Origin of galleyworm

From the way this creature resembles a worm with many legs, and the way the legs resemble the oars of a ship.

Questions about galleyworm

What does galleyworm mean?
Galleyworm means a centipede or millipede.
What part of speech is galleyworm?
Galleyworm is a noun.
What is the plural of galleyworm?
The plural of galleyworm is galleyworms.

Words near galleyworm in the dictionary

  1. galleymen
  2. galleypot
  3. galleypots
  4. galleys
  5. galleyslave
  6. galleyworm
  7. galleyworms
  8. gallflies
  9. gallflower
  10. gallflowers
  11. gallfly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: galleyworm (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.

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