Bug

How to spell bug

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bug

What does bug mean?

1. nounA small insect or similar creeping creature.
2. nounA fault or error in a computer program or system.
3. nounA concealed microphone used to secretly record or monitor conversations.
4. verbTo pester or irritate someone persistently.
5. nounA minor infectious illness, such as a cold or stomach upset.

Bug in a sentence

• noun

  A tiny bug crawled across the kitchen counter.

• noun

  The developers fixed the bug that crashed the app on startup.

• noun

  Investigators discovered a bug hidden inside the desk lamp.

• verb

  Endless notifications bug him whenever he tries to relax.

• noun

  Half the office caught a stomach bug last week.

• noun

  She swatted the bug that landed on her arm during the picnic.

Where does bug come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The origins of 'bug' are genuinely murky, which is why its earliest meaning surprises people. It first appears in English around the 1600s meaning a beetle or other small crawling insect, and it may descend from the Middle English 'bugge', a word for a frightening object or hobgoblin (the same 'bugge' that survives inside 'bugbear' and 'bogey'). Over time the insect sense took over completely in everyday speech, especially in North American English. The figurative use for a hidden flaw in a machine or program grew in the late 1800s, with engineers (including those around Thomas Edison) blaming faults on a 'bug' in the apparatus. The verb sense 'to annoy' and the spying sense 'a concealed microphone' are twentieth-century American slang developments. Because the word is short and phonetically regular, its spelling causes almost no trouble.

How the word is built

• bug (single root; of uncertain origin, no prefix or suffix)