midge
/mɪd͡ʒ/
midge noun: any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
Noun
midge (plural midges)
- Any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
- "I am being eaten alive!" cried Pippin. "Midgewater! There are more midges than water!"1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, “A Knife in the Dark”, in The Fellowship of the Ring
- Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota.2012 January, Douglas Larson, “Runaway Devils Lake”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 23 May 2012, page 46
- A small, short or insignificant person.
- Any bait or lure designed to resemble a midge.
Proper noun capitalized: Midge
Midge
- A female given name of rare usage, variant of Madge.
midge meaning in Tamil and Vietnamese
midge in Tamil
- கொசுவினப் பூச்சி
midge in Vietnamese
- fly of family Chironomidae or Ceratopogonidae
- ruồi nhuế
Examples of midge in a sentence
- Temefos is an organophosphorus insecticide used to control mosquito, midge, and black-fly larvae in lakes, ponds, and wetland habitats.
- These so-called glowworms display a bright blue-green light that attracts prey such as midges, mayflies, and caddisflies.
- It is the midges, clegs and ticks you should be on the lookout for.
Forms of midge
| plural | midges |
|---|---|
| alternative Northern England Scotland | midgie |
| alternative Northern England Scotland | midgy |
| alternative Northern England Scotland | midgey |
| alternative US (archaic, dialectal) | minge |
Origin of midge
From Middle English mydge, migge, from Old English myġġ, myċġ (“midge, gnat, mosquito”), from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō, from Proto-Indo-European *mū-, *mu-, *mew- (“fly, midge”). The dialectal sense of "short person" was originally figurative, and gave rise to midget (“short person”) via the diminutive suffix -et, which has since become part of standard English with that meaning; this has caused midge to undergo rebracketing as a clipping of midget. Cognates * Scots mige (“midge”) * Saterland Frisian Määge (“gnat, mosquito”) * West Frisian mich (“fly, mosquito”) * West Flemish meezje (“midge, mosquito”) * Dutch mug (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Low German Mügge (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * German Mücke (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Swedish mygg, mygga (“midge, gnat, mosquito”) * Icelandic mý (“midge, gnat, fly”) The Proto-Indo-European root was also the source of * Latin musca * Ancient Greek μυῖα (muîa) * Russian му́ха (múxa) * Latvian muša * Czech muchnička * Albanian mizë * Armenian մուն (mun)
Words formed from midge
- antimidge
- aphid midge
- apple leaf midge
- apple midge
- barley midge
- biting midge
- dung midge
- frog-biting midge
- fruit midge
- gall midge
- mackerel midge
- meniscus midge
- midge cap
- midge grass
- Midge Hall
- midgeling
- midge net
- midgeproof
- midget
- midgey
- mountain midge
- mugwort
- net-winged midge
- non-biting midge
- pear midge
- phantom midge
- solitary midge
- sorghum midge
- swede midge
- wheat-midge
- wheat midge
Phrases with midge
Words that rhyme with midge
Questions about midge
- What does midge mean?
- Midge means any of various small two-winged flies, for example, from the family Chironomidae or non-biting midges, the family Chaoboridae or phantom midges, and the family Ceratopogonidae or biting midges, all belonging to the order Diptera.
- What is midge in Tamil?
- Midge in Tamil is கொசுவினப் பூச்சி. See Midge meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is midge?
- Midge can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce midge?
- Midge is pronounced /mɪd͡ʒ/.
- What is the plural of midge?
- The plural of midge is midges.
Words near midge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: midge (page history and authors); Midge (page history and authors); midge (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-midge.wav.
Cite this entry: “midge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/midge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.