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egg¹

  • /ɛɡ/
  • [ɛɡ]
  • /(j)ɛɡ/ South Asia
  • /eɪ̯ɡ/
  • [eɪ̯ɡ]

Sounds like yegg, Eigg (pre-/ɡ/-tensing), ag (/æ/ raising) · Rhymes with -ɛɡ, -eɪɡ

Where it comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English eg, egg, egge (“egg of a domestic or wild fowl; egg of a snake”) [and other forms] (originally Northern England and Northeast Midlands), from Old Norse egg (“egg”), from Proto-Germanic *ajją (“egg”) (by Holtzmann’s law), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”), probably from *h₂éwis (“bird”), from *h₂ew- (“to consume”). Doublet of huevo, oeuf, and ovum.

Cognates

Cognate with North Frisian ai (“egg”), Saterland Frisian Oai (“egg”), West Frisian aai, aei (“egg”), Bavarian Oa (“egg”), Dutch ei (“egg”), German Ei (“egg”), German Low German Ai, Ägg (“egg”), Limburgish ei, Éï (“egg”), Luxembourgish Ee (“egg”), Mòcheno oi (“egg”), Vilamovian e (“egg”), Yiddish איי (ey, “egg”), Danish æg (“egg”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk egg (“egg”), Swedish ägg (“egg”), Crimean Gothic ada (“egg”); also Breton vi (“egg”), Cornish oy (“egg”), Welsh wy (“egg”), Latin ōvum (“egg”), Greek αβγό (avgó), αυγό (avgó, “egg”), Albanian vo (“egg”), Belarusian and Russian яйцо́ (jajcó, “egg”), Bulgarian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Czech vejce (“egg”), Macedonian јајце (jajce, “egg”), Polish jajo (“egg”), Serbo-Croatian ја́јце, jájce (“egg”), Slovak vajce (“egg”), Slovene jájce (“egg”), Ukrainian яйце́ (jajcé, “egg”), Ossetian айк (ajk), айкӕ (ajkæ, “egg”), Armenian ձու (ju, “egg”), Northern Kurdish hêk (“egg”), Southern Kurdish خا (xa, “egg”), Zazaki hak (“egg”), Pashto هګۍ (hagë́y), ويه (wë́ya, “egg”), Persian خاگ (xâg), خایه (xâye, “egg”).

The native English ey [and other forms] (plural eyren) (obsolete), from Old English ǣġ, is also derived from Proto-Germanic *ajją. It survived into at least c. 16th century before being fully displaced by egg.

The verb is derived from the noun.

noun eggs · egge

  1. countable, uncountable 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 Eſtrich (whoſe fethers are fayrer thẽ yᵉ wynges of the ſparow hauke) whẽ he hath layd his egges vpon the grounde, he bredeth them in the duſt, and forgetteth them: ſo that they might be troden with feete, or broken with ſomme wilde beaſt.
  2. countable, specifically 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. We made a big omelette with three eggs for breakfast.

    Similar: ey, huevo, oeuf

  3. broadly, countable A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
  4. also, countable, uncountable Synonym of ovum (“the female gamete of an animal”); an egg cell. In the Fall into the division of labor, [Claude] Lévi-Strauss sees the great hunters trading women to create the exogamous bonds of one hunting band with another. The egg is, but the sperm does. The tiny sperm may be furious in its activity, but its highway to the egg is paved by the alkaline trail

    Similar: ovum

  5. countable A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1). His ſtomacke vvas queaſie (for comming there Coacht) / The jogging had caus’d ſome crudities riſe; / To help it he call’d for a Puritan poacht, / That uſed to turne up the egg’s of his eyes.
  6. countable, uncountable A swelling on one's head, usually large or noticeable, resulting from an injury.

    Similar: goose egg

  7. countable, uncountable Chiefly in egg and dart: an ornamental oval moulding alternating in a row with dart or triangular shapes.
  8. countable, uncountable A score of zero; specifically (cricket), a batter's failure to score; a duck egg or duck's egg.

    Similar: goose egg, love

  9. countable, dated, uncountable A bomb or mine.
  10. countable, uncountable A would-be spark, especially one created by an overweight spaceship and that leads to a pattern's destruction.
  11. countable, uncountable A golf ball. But Olga continued to work through her large bucket of balls. Ninety percent of them came to rest in exactly the same spot—dead center, between 150 and 175 yards. So tightly bunched were her balls out there it looked like someone had overturned a bucket of eggs.
  12. countable, dated, figuratively, informal, uncountable A person; a fellow. a bad egg    a good egg    a tough egg    Cheerio, old egg!
  13. countable, derogatory, ethnic, figuratively, rare, slur A white person considered to be overly infatuated with East Asia.
  14. Internet, countable, dated, derogatory, figuratively, uncountable 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.
  15. countable, figuratively, uncountable 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. That fits, though, she thought. Wear the same outfit day after day, your brain gets numb to how it looks or feels—Wendy shut the album. No. […] She hated analyzing the whys of [not-out] trans girls. She had always hated it, and she hated how easy it had become; the bottomless hole of egg mode.
  16. broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable One's lack of awareness that one is transgender. to crack someone's egg
  17. New Zealand, countable, derogatory, figuratively, uncountable A foolish or obnoxious person. Shut up, you egg!
  18. countable, derogatory, figuratively, obsolete, uncountable A young person. VVhat you Egge? / Yong fry of Treachery?
  19. archaic, countable, figuratively, uncountable Something regarded as containing a (usually bad) thing at an early stage. [S]oe Power of Warre / From the firſt Egge of Libertie, out-Creepes / A fatall Serpent; […]
  20. countable, figuratively, uncountable One of the blocks of data injected into a program's address space for use by certain forms of shellcode, such as "omelettes". This approach would be altered for an optimal omelette based exploit. One would spray the heap with the omelette code solely, then load a single copy of the additional shellcode eggs into memory outside the target region for the spray.

verb eggs · egging · egged · egge

  1. transitive To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something). The angry demonstrators egged the riot police.
  2. transitive To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape. After I cut the tubing, I found that I had slightly egged it in the vise.
  3. transitive 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. "Jemima, Jemima!—ve'll ha'e the viting biled instead of fried." "Ca'n't, marm," replied Jemima, "they be all hegged and crumbed, with their tails in their mouths."
  4. intransitive To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.
  5. England, dialectal, intransitive, vulgar To conceive a child, especially recklessly. I was out with my girlfriend in Birmingham, when some colorful local told us not to egg.

egg²

  • /ɛɡ/
  • [ɛɡ]
  • /(j)ɛɡ/ South Asia
  • /eɪ̯ɡ/
  • [eɪ̯ɡ]

Sounds like yegg, Eigg (pre-/ɡ/-tensing), ag (/æ/ raising) · Rhymes with -ɛɡ, -eɪɡ

Where it comes from

From Middle English eggen (“to urge on; to entice, incite, lure, tempt; to encourage, exhort, stimulate; (reflexive) to bestir (oneself); to challenge, taunt; to enrage, irritate”), from Old English ġeeġġian (“to egg, excite”), from Old Norse eggja (“to incite, egg on”), from egg (“an edge”), from Proto-Germanic *agjō (“a corner; an edge”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”).

Cognates

* Danish ægge, egge (“to incite, egg on; to excite, rouse”)

* Swedish egga (“to excite, egg on”)

* Faroese eggja (“to incite, egg on; to sharpen”)

* Icelandic eggja (“to incite, egg on”)

* Old Frisian eggia (“to fence”)

* Middle Low German eggen (“to sharpen”)

* Old High German ungiekkōt (“unworked, unformed”)

* Middle High German ecken (“to sharpen”), German ecken (archaic)

Compare typologically another cognate: Russian поощря́ть (pooščrjátʹ), akin to Russian о́стрый (óstryj), ultimately from the same PIE root.

Also compare typologically noncognate: Bulgarian потиквам (potikvam), Czech nabádat (“urge, exhort”), Russian подстрека́ть (podstrekátʹ).

verb eggs · egging · egged · egg

  1. transitive To encourage, incite, or urge (someone). [Y]it haue vvee one thing in our ſelues and of our ſelues, (euen originall ſinne, concupiſcence or luſt) vvhich neuer ceaſeth too egge vs and allure vs from God, and too ſtaine vs vvith all kinde of vnclennes: […]

    Similar: edge, provoke, tempt

Egg³

proper noun

  1. A surname.
  2. informal A Koenigsegg car.
  3. humorous, with the The character Solas from the Dragon Age franchise (referring to his baldness). Heh, i don't think she was that cunning to begin with, but romancing the Egg has rubbed off on her ;D.
  4. A market town in Bregenz district, Vorarlberg, Austria.
  5. A municipality in Uster district, Zürich canton, Switzerland.

EGG⁴

noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism, uncountable Initialism of electroglottography

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: testicle, gonad, testis, nut, bollock, ballock, ball, oviposition, ovum, oocyte, embryo, zygote, embryonic, foot, somatic, ovule

Translations

Every language

noun approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its de

Españolhuevo, aguautle, ahuautle, aguaucle
한국어알 al
日本語卵 tamago, 玉子 tamago
中文卵子 luǎnzǐ
हिन्दीअंडा aṇḍā, डिंब ḍimb, अंड aṇḍ
Kiswahiliyai
Portuguêsovo
Françaisœuf
DeutschEi
Italianouovo
Ελληνικάαβγό avgó
Românăou
Русскийяйцо́ jajcó
Tiếng Việttrứng
العربيةبَيْض bayḍ, بَيْضَة bayḍa
עבריתבֵּיצָה beitsá

noun thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg

日本語卵形
Portuguêsoval
DeutschEi
Ελληνικάαβγό avgó

noun person regarded as having not yet realized they are transgender, or who has not yet come out as transgender or is in the early stages of transitioning; one’s la

中文友跨順男 /友跨顺男 yǒukuà shùnnán
Françaisegg, œuf

noun edible egg of a domestic fowl; the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food

Españolhuevo
한국어계란 gyeran, 달걀 dalgyal
日本語卵 tamago, 玉子 tamago, 鶏卵 keiran
中文蛋 dàn, 雞蛋 /鸡蛋 jīdàn
हिन्दीअंडा aṇḍā, डिंब ḍimb
Kiswahiliyai
Portuguêsovo
Françaisœuf
DeutschEi
Italianouovo
Ελληνικάαβγό avgó
Românăou
Русскийяйцо́ jajcó
Tiếng Việttrứng
العربيةبَيْضَة bayḍa
עבריתבֵּיצָה beitsá

noun swelling on one’s head resulting from an injury

Españolchichón, tolondro, cototo, bulto
Portuguêsinchaço, galo
Românăcucui
Русскийши́шка šíška

verb to throw (rotten) eggs at (someone or something)

Españollanzar huevos a, tirar huevos a
Portuguêsjogar ovos em
Françaisjeter des oeufs
Ελληνικάπαίρνω με τ’ αβγά paírno me t’ avgá

verb to recklessly conceive

日本語生んで仕舞う unde-shimau, 産んで仕舞う unde-shimau, うんじゃう unjau

verb to encourage, incite, or urge (someone) — see also encourage, incite, urge

Españolempujar, incitar
Deutschanfeuern, anstacheln, antreiben
Ελληνικάπροτρέπω protrépo

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"egg." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/egg. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

egg. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/egg

Chicago

"egg." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/egg.

BibTeX
@misc{egg_2026,
  title = {egg},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/egg},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}