Word.ws English Dictionary

zerg

/zɜː(ɹ)ɡ/

zerg verb: to attack an opponent with a large swarm of low-level units before they have been able to build sufficient defences.

Verb

zerg (third-person singular simple present zergs, present participle zerging, simple past and past participle zerged)

  1. (dated, slang, strategy games) To attack an opponent with a large swarm of low-level units before they have been able to build sufficient defences.
    • You can't win with small, balanced groups. You have to zerg the mob with a high number of players. They don't have to zerg lower tier encounters just like the lowest tier guilds doesn't have to zerg orc camp 1 in EC. But, at the top end, it's still zerg tactics.2002, Wolfie, “Re: Whoa - massive changes due in next patch”, in alt.games.everquest (Usenet)
    • The scale and lack of focused content doesn't facilitate this grouping as well as some other games. The good side of that is you don't get the "wonderful" experience of zerging around DF with everyone else waiting for something to spawn.2003, George, “Finding groups to mission/hunt/other experience with”, in alt.games.starwarsgalaxies (Usenet)
    Synonyms:
    cheese, rush

Noun

zerg (plural zergs)

  1. (dated, slang) A very large group of units or players.
    Synonyms:
    blob

Synonyms of zerg

Forms of zerg

Verb
third-person singular presentzergs
present participlezerging
past participlezerged
pastzerged
Noun
pluralzergs

Origin of zerg

From the game StarCraft (1998), in which the easily mass-produced Zerg units encourage such a strategy.

Words that rhyme with zerg

Questions about zerg

What does zerg mean?
Zerg means to attack an opponent with a large swarm of low-level units before they have been able to build sufficient defences.
What part of speech is zerg?
Zerg can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce zerg?
Zerg is pronounced /zɜː(ɹ)ɡ/.
What is the past tense of zerg?
The past tense of zerg is zerged.

Words near zerg in the dictionary

  1. zereeba
  2. zereebas
  3. zeren
  4. zereshk
  5. zereshk polo
  6. zerg
  7. zerged
  8. zerging
  9. zergs
  10. zeriba
  11. zeribaed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zerg (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-au-zerg.ogg.

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