macguffin

1. 1.

   (film) a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot

   “the McGuffin was a key element of Alfred Hitchcock's films”

   SynonymsMcGuffin

   Broaderplot element

   film

Other forms of macguffin

plural

macguffins·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about macguffin

What does macguffin mean?

macguffin means "(film) a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot".

How many syllables are in macguffin?

macguffin has 3 syllables: mac-guf-fin. The stress falls on "mac".

What is another word for macguffin?

Close synonyms include McGuffin. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is macguffin a common word?

macguffin is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.