earworm
earworm Lexical Profile
earworm Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A catchy song or musical tune that persistently repeats in a person's mind long after it is no longer playing.
"That commercial jingle is such an earworm that I have been humming it all afternoon."
The larva of any of various noctuid moths of the genus Helicoverpa (especially Helicoverpa zea), which is a major agricultural pest in the Americas that feeds on the ears of corn as well as cotton bolls and tomatoes.
"The farmer inspected the sweet corn tassels carefully for signs of damage from the corn earworm."
An archaic or dialectal name for the earwig, a nocturnal insect of the order Dermaptera characterized by a pair of pincers at the rear of its abdomen.
Word Origin & Etymology
In its musical sense, the word is a late 20th-century loan translation of the German compound Ohrwurm (literally 'earworm'). In its agricultural sense, it is an English compound combining 'ear' (the seed-bearing head of a cereal plant, from Old English ēar) and 'worm' (from Old English wyrm).