egg
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An about spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehgIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɛɡ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
countablezoology
An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
countablezoologyspecifically
The edible egg (sense 1.1) of a domestic fowl such as a duck, goose, or, especially, a chicken; (uncountable) the contents of such an egg or eggs used as food.
countablezoologyby extension
A food item shaped to resemble an egg (sense 1.1.1), such as a chocolate egg.
Animal reproductive body consisting of an ovum or embryo together with nutritive and protective envelopes; especially the thin-shelled reproductive body laid by e.g. female birds
countable
A thing which looks like or is shaped like an egg (sense 1.1).
One of the two male reproductive glands that produce spermatozoa and secrete androgens
verb
intransitive
To collect the eggs (noun sense 1.1) of wild birds.
transitive
To throw (especially rotten) eggs (noun sense 1.1.1) at (someone or something).
transitive
To inadvertently or intentionally distort (the circular cross-section of something, such as tube) to an elliptical or oval shape.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, housing the embryo within a membrane or shell during its development.
Used this way, egg is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use egg
- “I like to eat a fried egg with toast for breakfast every morning.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Egg-shaped chocolate candy.
Egg-shaped candy.
Common European perennial having showy yellow and orange flowers.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- incubationnoun
- chicknoun
- embryonoun
- uterusnoun
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.