bookworm
Americannoun
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bookworms
plural
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a person devoted to reading or studying.
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any of various insects that feed on books, especially a booklouse.
noun
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a person excessively devoted to studying or reading
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any of various small insects that feed on the binding paste of books, esp the book louse
Usage
What does bookworm mean? A bookworm is someone who’s always reading, usually because they just love to read or because they’re studying or both. Bookworm is sometimes used negatively to make fun of people who love to read. But it is more commonly used in a positive way, especially by book lovers proudly calling themselves bookworms. Bookworm can also be used literally as a general name for any insect that eats books. Example: Bookworms usually have huge vocabularies, so be careful when you play one in Scrabble.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bookworm
Explanation
A bookworm is someone who loves to read. If you're a true bookworm, you'd rather spend Friday nights on the couch with a book than out at a party. Some people are bookworms from the moment they first learn to read, while others grow into their love of books and reading after encountering a particularly wonderful book. Even people who didn't love the "Harry Potter" series of books mostly concede that they created a whole generation of bookworms. The word bookworm originally referred to a variety of insects that infest and eat paper, including the pages of books.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He became a self-proclaimed "bookworm", reading Albert Camus, Toni Morrison, and Romain Gary, as well as fellow Haitian writers such as Jacques Roumain and James Noel.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
Mary is a bookworm who draws her apt conclusions about human behavior from written wisdom.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
After Harelly moved to the Bay Area to study creative writing at San Francisco State University, the bookworm felt a massive disconnect from the Eurocentric, English work she was assigned to read in her classes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
An under-the-radar prospect from Miami, Mendoza was such a bookworm in high school that some coaches stopped pursuing him because they questioned whether he really wanted to play football.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2025
She doesn’t say what she’d like you to get the Ph.D. in, but I assume Math rather than Greek, you dirty little bookworm.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
Opening your own book shop might be a lofty daydream for some bookworms looking to escape their 9-5, but more and more people are making it a reality.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
But unless your club is extraordinarily broad-minded, you might cause considerable consternation by exposing fellow bookworms to Mr. Warren-Smith’s gleeful, demented diversions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Los Angeles bookworms, clear your weekend plans: L.A.’s inaugurial Indie Book Crawl is kicking off this weekend.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Flour-based glues come from the insides of wheat grains and include gluten — which bookworms love as much as the rest of us.
From Salon ● May 7, 2024
“Bring me your best and brightest bookworms, research hounds, and gamers. Our first Library Olympiad shall commence on March twentieth. The ancient Greeks had their summer games, so we’ll take the first day of spring.”
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
