brainworm
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: brainworms
form: brain worm
form: brain-worm
Etymology: From brain + worm.
Senses: examples: text: Only rarely do we find a brainworm-infected moose that has larvae in its feces.
ref: 1990, Maine Fish and Wildlife, volumes 32-33, page 10:
glosses: A neurotropic nematode parasite (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis).
examples: text: She caught my expression, and added quickly, “Oh, but not bad brain worms. Good brain worms. They know most of the languages that are spoken across the worlds, and pretty soon you will too.”
ref: 2012, David Barr Kirtley, “The Ontological Factor”, in John Joseph Adams, editor, Other Worlds Than These, unnumbered page:
text: "Yes. And I'm going to get back to her. Nothing's going to stand in the way of that. Not two thousand years...not some overambitious species that think they're gods...not monsters or brain-worms or secret assassins."
ref: 2012, Mark Chadbourn, Jack of Ravens, unnumbered page:
text: This allows brain worms to animate their dead bodies, creating shambling warriors that fight for their queens.
ref: 2021, Jason Fry, Star Wars The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia, page 111:
topics: literature
media
publishing
science-fiction
glosses: Any parasitic, worm-like species that inhabits the brain of another organism, typically altering its behaviour or giving it special abilities.
examples: text: Which points out the difference between this song and other brainworms.
ref: 2008 July 1, Mike Redmond, “Astley Brainworm”, in Current in Carmel, page 28:
text: Although brainworms are no doubt ancient, the term has come into common use only in the last few decades, probably because suddenly music is ubiquitous, […]
ref: 2009 September 5, Bill & Rich Sones, “Can't get rid of that tune? Maybe it's a brainworm”, in Woolwich Observer, page 30:
text: The hallucinations in question are exaggerated forms of 'brainworms' – music stuck in the head.
ref: 2016, Lawrence Kramer, “Caliban's Ear: A Short History of Ambient Music”, in Anahid Kassabian, Elena Boschi, Marta García Quiñones, editors, Ubiquitous Musics: The Everyday Sounds That We Don't Always Notice, page 15:
synonyms: earworm
glosses: A song or melody that keeps playing inside of one's mind.
examples: text: Of all the toxic brainworms Ronald Reagan passed down to his acolytes and imitators, almost none has proven more ineradicable and ruinous than his pathologically dissociative behavior when confronted with any information that threatened to impede his world-view.
ref: 2016 October 20, driftglass [username], “Fundraiser Day Five: Joe Scarborough and Bill Kristol -- Cannibals Fighting Over The Place Settings”, in driftglass [personal website]:
text: Venezuela's market-based economy looks nothing like the centrally-planned Maoist regime that Sean Hannity's brainworms tell him it is.
ref: 2019 February 22, Sean Burke, “Ditch liberalism: Let's give socialism a chance”, in The Student Life, Claremont College, page 7:
text: […] but I've already found my mood has improved and the time I've spent having fun with my kid, reading, keeping fit, etc. has increased markedly as my screen time (and my brain worms) have dwindled.
ref: 2020, Jake Dean, "mum + dad words", Kiddo, December 2020 - February 2021, page 31
text: I think institutional success would be nice because I have the capitalist brain worms that we all have.
ref: 2021, Stephanie Shih, quoted in "An Interview with Stephanie Shih", Form (Duke University), Volume 25 (2021), page 117
text: Intriguingly, despite essentially running the free world from the platform during his first term in office, Trump himself has remained weirdly resistant to the brainworms.
ref: 2025 June 13, Marina Hyde, “So social media has broken even Elon Musk. I’m forced to ask: U OK hun?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: A persistent delusion or obsession; a deeply-ingrained or unquestioned idea.
Derived terms: brain-wormed