wug

W4U1G2
UK, Southern England, UK/wʌɡ/Northern England, UK/wʊɡ/Australia, New Zealand/wɐɡ/

noun

An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children.

OriginEnglish bug ← Middle English worm ← Old English wyrm →
RareScrabble 7
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Meanings

wug1

nounwug (plural wugs (see usage notes))

plural wugs

  1. human sciencesAn imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children.

wug2

nounwug (plural wugs)

plural wugs

  1. anthropologyIn folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly.

Origin

wug · noun

] Coined ex nihilo by American psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason in the 1950s as a word that children taking the test would not have heard before.

Full word history & related roots →

wug · noun

  1. Proto-Germanic*wurmiz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*wurmi
  3. Old Englishwyrm
  4. Middle Englishworm
  5. Englishworm
  6. Englishbug
  7. Englishwug

From worm + bug.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with wug

drugbugplugDougdebugughuglugslugthugpugtugsnugshrugglugunplugsmugfuggloggvugtrugfrugarmadillo buggigglemug
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

wug. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wug

MLA

“wug.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wug. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wug,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wug.

Source: wug on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.