Easter egg
Americannoun
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a chicken egg that is dyed and often given a figure or design, or an imitation of such an egg, as an egg-shaped candy or chocolate, used at Easter as a gift or decoration.
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Digital Technology. an extra feature, as a message or video, hidden in a software program, video game, DVD, etc., and revealed as by an obscure sequence of keystrokes or commands.
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Movies, Television. a hidden message, as a cryptic reference, iconic image, or inside joke, that fans are intended to discover in a television show or movie.
noun
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an egg given to children at Easter, usually a chocolate egg or a hen's egg with its shell painted
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a bonus or extra feature hidden inside a website, computer game, or DVD, that is only revealed after repeated or lengthy viewing or playing
Usage
What does Easter egg mean? Easter eggs can refer to candy eggs or eggs decorated for the Christian holiday of Easter, and searched for during Easter egg hunts.In popular culture, Easters eggs are text, images, visual gags, jokes, or other content that creators intentionally hide in media for their and their viewers' amusement.
Etymology
Origin of Easter egg
First recorded in 1570–80
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.
It’s good news for Easter egg buyers, as the average price of a dozen conventional eggs fell to $1.423 in the fiscal third quarter from $4.766 a year ago.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026
I hope that we do it as a little Easter egg for the fans in the finale, so I’m looking forward to doing that.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
Tickets were set at $12, a reference to the album number—the kind of wink-nudge Easter egg Swift has become known for.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 5, 2025
The $13.87 price point was an Easter egg in its own right, nodding to Swift’s favorite number and Travis Kelce’s jersey.
From Salon • Aug. 31, 2025
Like winning the lottery, finding Halliday’s Easter egg became a popular fantasy among adults and children alike.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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.
