"wug" meaning in English

See wug in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /wʌɡ/ Forms: wugs [plural]
enPR: wŭg Rhymes: -ʌɡ Etymology: Pseudoword, 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. Etymology templates: {{coin|en|Q3350253|exnihilo=1|in=in the 1950s|nobycat=1|nocap=1}} coined ex nihilo by American psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason in the 1950s Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} wug
  1. (linguistics) An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children. Derived forms: Wug Test, wug word
    Sense id: en-wug-en-noun-lLE-U6Oy Categories (other): Linguistics, English blends, English terms coined ex nihilo Disambiguation of English blends: 65 35 Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

IPA: /wʌɡ/ Forms: wugs [plural]
enPR: wŭg Rhymes: -ʌɡ Etymology: Blend of worm + bug. Etymology templates: {{blend|en|worm|bug}} Blend of worm + bug Head templates: {{en-noun}} wug (plural wugs)
  1. (anthropology) In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly.
    Sense id: en-wug-en-noun-A6YCPzkM Categories (other): Anthropology, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 16 84 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 16 84 Topics: anthropology, human-sciences, sciences
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "Q3350253",
        "exnihilo": "1",
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      },
      "expansion": "coined ex nihilo by American psycholinguist Jean Berko Gleason in the 1950s",
      "name": "coin"
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  "etymology_text": "Pseudoword, 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.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "wugs",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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    {
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "65 35",
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        },
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        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "Wug Test"
        },
        {
          "word": "wug word"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children."
      ],
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      "links": [
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        ],
        [
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        ],
        [
          "plural",
          "plural"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(linguistics) An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "wŭg"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wʌɡ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɡ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wug"
}

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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of worm + bug.",
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    {
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      "expansion": "wug (plural wugs)",
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        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly."
      ],
      "id": "en-wug-en-noun-A6YCPzkM",
      "links": [
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        ],
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        ],
        [
          "insect",
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        ],
        [
          "bug",
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        ],
        [
          "creepy-crawly",
          "creepy-crawly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(anthropology) In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "anthropology",
        "human-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
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      "enpr": "wŭg"
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    {
      "ipa": "/wʌɡ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɡ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wug"
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
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    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɡ",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɡ/1 syllable"
  ],
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    {
      "word": "Wug Test"
    },
    {
      "word": "wug word"
    }
  ],
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      },
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      "name": "coin"
    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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      ],
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        ],
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          "plural"
        ]
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        "(linguistics) An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "linguistics",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "wŭg"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wʌɡ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɡ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wug"
}

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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɡ",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɡ/1 syllable"
  ],
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  ],
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    }
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      ],
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        "In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly."
      ],
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          "anthropology"
        ],
        [
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        ],
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        ],
        [
          "insect",
          "insect"
        ],
        [
          "bug",
          "bug"
        ],
        [
          "creepy-crawly",
          "creepy-crawly"
        ]
      ],
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        "(anthropology) In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "anthropology",
        "human-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "enpr": "wŭg"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/wʌɡ/"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɡ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "wug"
}

Download raw JSONL data for wug meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (074e7de and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.