Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
wug en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
/wʌɡ/ (Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England) /wɐɡ/ (Australia, New-Zealand) wŭg /wʊɡ/ (Northern-England) /wʌɡ/ (General-American) Etymology ]
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.
Meanings
An imaginary creature resembling a bird, used in the Wug Test to investigate the acquisition of the plural form in English-speaking children.
Forms
Deriveds
Wug Test · wug word
wikipedia: Wug Test
Source: en.wiktionary, “wug” (noun), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
wug en · NOUN · etymology 2
Pronunciation
/wʌɡ/ (Received-Pronunciation, Southern-England) /wɐɡ/ (Australia, New-Zealand) wŭg /wʊɡ/ (Northern-England) /wʌɡ/ (General-American) Etymology Etymology tree
Proto-Germanic *wurmiz
Proto-West Germanic *wurmi
Old English wyrm
Middle English worm
English worm
English bug
English wug
From worm + bug.
Meanings
In folk taxonomy, a creature with worm or insect features; colloquially, a bug or creepy-crawly.
Forms
Source: en.wiktionary, “wug” (noun), dump 20260902, contributors via the page history. Text licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.