What does "bug" mean?
An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
Bug
/bʌɡ/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
- Grammar: bug is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: glitch, abrade, addict, addle.
- Useful contrasts: be discreet, correctness, debugger.
- Usage evidence: We're thoroughly prepared for the Y2K bug.
How to use "bug"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "bug" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "bug" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "bug" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "bug" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "bug" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "glitch" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "bug", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An insect of the order Hemiptera (the “true bugs”).
- 2 A Volkswagen Beetle car. US, slang
- 3 A Bugatti car. slang
- 4 a minute life form (especially a disease-causing bacterium); the term is not in technical use wordnet
- 5 Any of various species of marine (saltwater or freshwater) crustaceans; e.g. a Moreton Bay bug, mudbug.
"Bugs, oysters, prawns and crabs […] are plated up on the decks of four side-by-side trawlers bobbing on the calm waters of Trinity Inlet."
Show 29 more definitions
- 6 general term for any insect or similar creeping or crawling invertebrate wordnet
- 7 Any insect, arachnid, or other terrestrial arthropod that is a pest. informal
"These flies are a bother. I’ll get some bug spray and kill them."
- 8 insects with sucking mouthparts and forewings thickened and leathery at the base; usually show incomplete metamorphosis wordnet
- 9 Any minibeast. informal
- 10 a small hidden microphone; for listening secretly wordnet
- 11 Any minibeast.; Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath. informal
- 12 a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine wordnet
- 13 Any minibeast.; Any insect, arachnid, myriapod or entognath.; Any insect. informal
"A: Eew, what is that thing?! Is that a bug?! B: No, it's a spider. And don't worry: she's not gonna hurt you."
- 14 A bedbug. UK, obsolete, specifically
"Speaking of advertising changes of name, a title by which those lodging-house pests, bugs, are now often known, that of Norfolk Howards, is derived from an advertisement in which one Ephraim Bug avowed his intention of being for the future known as Norfolk Howard."
- 15 A problem that needs fixing. jargon
"The software bug led the computer to calculate 2 plus 2 as 3."
- 16 A contagious illness, or a pathogen causing it.
"He's got the flu bug."
- 17 An enthusiasm for something; an obsession. informal
"I caught the skiing bug while staying in the Alps."
- 18 A keen enthusiast or hobbyist. informal
"His mother had been a bug on astrology, which was why the moment of his birth had been impressed on him so exactly."
- 19 A concealed electronic eavesdropping or intercept device
"We installed a bug in her telephone."
- 20 A small and usually invisible file (traditionally a single-pixel image) on a World Wide Web page, primarily used to track users.
"He suspected the image was a Web bug used for determining who was visiting the site."
- 21 A lobster. Maine
- 22 A small, usually transparent or translucent image placed in a corner of a television program to identify the broadcasting network or cable channel.
"Channel 4's bug distracted Jim from his favorite show."
- 23 A manually positioned marker in flight instruments.
"You look up the proper speed for the phase of flight, set the reminder bug, and then literally forget the speed. You don't read the airspeed number, you fly to the bug."
- 24 A semi-automated telegraph key.
"At this point your telegraph operator, sitting at your right, goes "Ticky-tick-tickety-de-tick-tick," with his bug, as he calls his transmitter, and looks at you expectantly."
- 25 Hobgoblin, scarecrow; anything that terrifies. obsolete
"Sir, spare your threats: / The bug which you would fright me with I seek."
- 26 HIV.
"The arguably most debated bareback practice that came to attract attention early on (and still does) was that of "bug chasing," in which HIV-negative men (bug chasers) actively seek out sex with HIV-positive men (gift givers)."
- 27 A limited form of wild card in some variants of poker.
- 28 A trilobite. slang
"We asked Harris if he had any recommendations about seeing the famous trilobite digs. He said we should just drive out to his claim in the Wheeler Quadrangle, and it was just fine with him if we dug a few bugs."
- 29 Synonym of oil bug. US, dated, slang
"Now, only three years later, most of the major oil companies maintain staffs of these men who examine cores, classify the various types of "bugs," or foraminifera, and make charts showing the depths at which each of the hundreds of types is found."
- 30 An asterisk denoting an apprentice jockey's weight allowance. US, slang
"The "bugs" are the asterisks next to the apprentice's name. One bug is a five-pound allowance, two bugs equal seven pounds, and three bugs equal ten pounds."
- 31 A young apprentice jockey. US, broadly, slang
- 32 Synonym of union bug.
- 33 A small piece of metal used in a slot machine to block certain winning combinations. slang
"Because many illegal slot-machine operators here and abroad do not like to give the slot-machine player even one chance to hit the jackpot or the big bonus, they make use of a "bug." This is a small, flat half-circle of iron about an inch long, which looks something like a bug."
- 34 A metal clip attached to the underside of a table, etc. to hold hidden cards, as a form of cheating. slang
"Some clumsy or audacious sharpers will go so far as to hold out cards in their lap, or stick them in a "bug" under the table."
Verb
- 1 To annoy. informal, transitive
"Don’t bug me, I’m busy!"
- 2 annoy persistently wordnet
- 3 To act suspiciously or irrationally, especially in a way that annoys others. informal, intransitive
"I'm worried about Wallace. He's been buggin' all week."
- 4 tap a telephone or telegraph wire to get information wordnet
- 5 To install an electronic listening device or devices in. transitive
"We need to know what’s going on. We’ll bug his house."
Show 2 more definitions
- 6 To bulge or protrude. intransitive
"I well remember the combination of excitement and apprehension with which I tentatively entered my first "rap." My eyes bugged open. There must have been 25 women in the room. I don't think I had ever seen so many lesbians all together in one place before."
- 7 To represent (a value) using a bug on an instrument. transitive
"You (or the autopilot) are still steering to the bugged heading […]"
Adjective
- 1 Initialism of bisexual until graduation. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, not-comparable
Proper Noun
- 1 An East European river which flows northwest 450 miles through Belarus, Poland and Ukraine into the Baltic Sea. (Western Bug).
- 2 A river in Ukraine (Southern Bug), flowing 530 miles to the Dnieper estuary.
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"We're thoroughly prepared for the Y2K bug."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "bug"?
Common synonyms include: glitch, abrade, addict, addle, addle the wits, adenovirus.
How do you use "bug" in a sentence?
We're thoroughly prepared for the Y2K bug.
How do you pronounce "bug"?
Pronounced /bʌɡ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
First attested in this form around 1620 (referring to a “bedbug”), from earlier bugge (“beetle”), from Middle English bugge (“scarecrow, hobgoblin”) which is traced alternatively to: * a Celtic root found in Scots bogill (“goblin, bugbear”) and obsolete Welsh bwg (“ghost, hobgoblin”); compare Welsh bwgwl (“threat, fear”) and Middle Irish bocanách (“supernatural being”). * Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”); compare Norwegian bugge (“big man”), dialectal Low German Bögge (“goblin, snot”). * or to a word related to buck and originally referring to a goat-shaped spectre. For the “insect” meaning the assonance with Middle English budde (“beetle”), from Old English budda, from Proto-Germanic *buddô, *buzdô, from the same ultimate source as above, might have played a role. Compare Low German Budde (“louse, grub”), Norwegian budda (“newborn domestic animal”). More at bud. But ultimately this convergence of meaning doesn't prove a conflation of the two terms; they might have existed in parallel since PIE times with similar meanings, even if unnoticed by literary sources. The term is used to refer to technical errors and problems at least as early as the 19th century, predating the commonly known story of a moth being caught in a computer.
Etymology 2
From the Slavic hydronym *bugъ /*buga.