silkworm

1. 1.

   the commercially bred hairless white caterpillar of the domestic silkworm moth which spins a cocoon that can be processed to yield silk fiber; the principal source of commercial silk

   Broadercaterpillar

   Part ofBombyx

   Partssilk gland
2. 2.

   larva of a saturniid moth; spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon

   Synonymsgiant silkwormwild wilkworm

   Broadercaterpillar

   Narrowerailanthus silkworm

   Part ofSaturniidae

   Partssilk gland

Other forms of silkworm

plural

silkworms·

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 silkworm

What does silkworm mean?

silkworm means "the commercially bred hairless white caterpillar of the domestic silkworm moth which spins a cocoon that can be processed to yield silk fiber; the principal source of commercial silk". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in silkworm?

silkworm has 2 syllables: sil-kworm. The stress falls on "sil". In IPA it is /ˈsɪlkwɚm/.

What is another word for silkworm?

Close synonyms include giant silkworm, wild wilkworm. 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 silkworm a common word?

silkworm is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.