earworm

English

Etymology

ear +‎ worm, as a calque of German Ohrwurm (“earworm”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪə(ɹ).wɜː(ɹ)m/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Noun

earworm (plural earworms)

1. A tune that is stuck in one's head, especially as unwanted or repetitive.
   • 2005, Kim Cooper, David Smay, editor, Lost in the Grooves: Scram's Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed‎^[1], Routledge, →ISBN, Klymaxx - Meeting in the Ladies Room, page 132:

     The chorus spawned an earworm so potent that women still mutter it as they exit for a bathroom break twenty years later.

   • 2005, Brain Stableford, Kiss the Goat‎^[2], Wildside Press, →ISBN, Chapter Two, pages 15-16:

     “Yeah, well,” he said, weakly. “Sometimes tunes do that.” […] ¶ “I don't mean that I heard it once before and caught an earworm.”

   • 2009, Steve Goodman, “1971: The Earworm”, in Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear‎^[3], MIT Press, →ISBN, page 147:

     A commonly cited species within memetics, the earworm is the catchy tune that you cannot get out of your head, the vocal refrain, the infectious rhythm or the addictive riff

Derived terms

• corn earworm
• earwormy

Translations

catchy tune that gets stuck in one's head

• Danish: ørehænger c
• Dutch: oorwurm (nl) m
• Faroese: landaplága f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: korvamato (fi)
• German: Ohrwurm (de) m
• Hungarian: dallamtapadás

See also

• ear candy

Further reading

• earworm on Wikipedia.Wikipedia