HOW TO PRONOUNCE
egg
/ɛɡ/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:33
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What does egg mean?
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.
- 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.
- A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
More meanings (29)
noun
- Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell.
- A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
- A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.
- Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
- A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.
- A would-be spark, especially one created by an overweight spaceship and that leads to a pattern's destruction.
- A golf ball.
- (figuratively) 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.
- (figuratively) One's lack of awareness that one is transgender.
- (figuratively) One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes".
- Initialism of electroglottography.
- (dated) A bomb or mine.
- (dated, figuratively, informal) A person; a fellow.
- (derogatory, figuratively, rare) A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.
- (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.
- (derogatory, figuratively) A foolish or obnoxious person.
- (derogatory, figuratively, obsolete) A young person.
- (archaic, figuratively) Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage.
verb
- To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).
- To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.
- 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.
- To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.
- To encourage, incite, or urge (someone).
- (vulgar) To conceive a child, especially recklessly.
proper noun
- A surname.
- (informal) A Koenigsegg car.
- (humorous) The character Solas from the Dragon Age franchise (referring to his baldness).
- A market town in Bregenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria.
- A municipality in Uster district, Zürich canton, Switzerland.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ɛɡ/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Things went smoothly on, till one day she found in the nest a little white egg, with a golden band about it.
‘Three times she shall go to the kirk every Sabbath, and we’ll egg her on to attending the lectures in the hall.’
More book examples (3)
Mrs. H. did not know whether you should put an egg into cold or hot water when you meant to boil it!
I am afraid, after all, I shall have to take the bull by the horns and have an egg with my breakfast.
Masterman has grafted with the inner membrane of a hen's egg, and a Mexican surgeon, Altramirano, used the gills of a cock.