egg

The word “egg” means an oval or round body laid by birds, reptiles, and many other animals, usually containing a developing embryo. In plain terms, the oval object laid by birds and other animals, most familiar as a breakfast food; as a verb, "egg on" means to push someone into doing something.

“Egg” is pronounced EHG (/ˈɛɡ/ in IPA).

Here is “egg” used in a sentence: “The bird's nest held four small speckled eggs.”

Depending on how it is used, “egg” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “egg” comes from Latin. From Old Norse egg, going back to a very old Germanic word for "egg" that's also the source of similar words in Dutch, German, and the Scandinavian languages, and distantly related to Latin ovum.

“Egg” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A1 level.

“Egg” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: an oval or round body laid by birds, reptiles, and many other animals, usually containing a developing embryo.

A typical bird's egg has four main parts: the hard outer shell that protects it, a thin membrane just inside, the clear-to-white albumen, known as the egg white, which cushions and nourishes, and the yolk at the centre, which feeds the developing embryo. Together they support new life until hatching.

Many animals do. Birds and most reptiles lay eggs, as do fish, amphibians such as frogs, and countless insects. Even a few mammals, the platypus and echidnas, known as monotremes, lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young. Egg-laying is one of nature's most widespread ways of reproducing.

An ovum is the female reproductive cell itself, a single microscopic egg cell. An egg, in the everyday sense, is the larger structure an animal lays, complete with yolk, white, and shell, containing that cell once it is fertilised. So the ovum is the seed of life inside the egg.