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maggot.

A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmæɡət//ˈmeɪ̯ɡət/
  1. A soft, legless larva of a fly or other dipteran insect, that often eats decomposing organic matter.

  2. A worthless, obnoxious or contemptible person.

    derogatory · slang · vulgar
    Drop and give me fifty, maggot.
  3. A whimsy or fancy.

    archaic · dialectal
  4. A fan of the American metal band Slipknot.

    slang
  5. Alternative form of MAGAt.

    US · alt-of · alternative · derogatory · offensive · slang
Where this word comes from

From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”). The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.

verb/ˈmæɡət//ˈmeɪ̯ɡət/
  1. To rid (an animal) of maggots.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”). The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.

adj/ˈmæɡət//ˈmeɪ̯ɡət/
  1. Alternative form of maggoted (“drunk; intoxicated”).

    Australia · alt-of · alternative · colloquial
Where this word comes from

From Middle English magot, magat, maked, probably a metathetic alteration of maddock, maðek (“worm", "maggot”), originally a diminutive form of a base represented by Old English maþa (Scots mathe), from Proto-West Germanic *maþō, from Proto-Germanic *maþô, from the Proto-Indo-European root *mat, which was used in insect names, equivalent to made + -ock. Near-cognates include Dutch made, German Made and Swedish mask, Icelandic maðkur (“worm, grub, maggot”). The use of maggot to mean a fanciful or whimsical thing derives from the folk belief that a whimsical or crotchety person had maggots in their brain.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.