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:
Cinematographer Łukasz Żal frames the scene in a pane of window glass so that Agnes’ reflection ripples across Will’s yearning face, contrasting the earthy enchantress with the indoor bookworm.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
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
As a child, she was a "bookworm" who loved attending acting classes and workshops.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2024
They hoped it would be a way to spread the organic bookworm spirit they’d instilled in their five children while dialing up representation for readers who had trouble finding characters who looked like them.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
What were they to him, Silvertongue and his daughter, the boy, the bookworm, and the woman who was another man’s wife once more?
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
So I always imagined my own children would similarly be bookworms and geeks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2025
True crime podcast lovers, bookworms and mystery series fans will all find something of interest in “Listen for the Lie,” the latest hit book to get the TV treatment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2025
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
"Bookworm" is a cute thing to call a voracious reader, but actual bookworms -- as well as microorganisms and time -- break down the flour pastes commonly used to keep old publications in one piece.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 25, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
