any of numerous relatively small elongated soft-bodied animals especially of the phyla Annelida and Chaetognatha and Nematoda and Nemertea and Platyhelminthes; also many insect larvae
a software program capable of reproducing itself that can spread from one computer to the next over a network
"worms take advantage of automatic file sending and receiving features found on many computers"
screw thread on a gear with the teeth of a worm wheel or rack
"The precision engineer carefully adjusted the worm to ensure smooth engagement with the large gear's teeth."
A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm.
"The archival drive was formatted as a worm disk so that each sector could be written only once before becoming permanently read-only."
Write once read many (or read multiple), with regards to a disc medium. See write once.
In plain English: A worm is an inch-long, soft-bodied animal that lives underground and moves by wriggling its body forward.
"The earthworm moved through the damp soil after the rain stopped."
Usage: Use this word to describe any long, slender animal that moves by wriggling or burrowing through soil and other materials. It is often confused with similar creatures like slugs when describing garden pests, but worms specifically belong to the annelid phylum rather than mollusks.
To make (one's way) with a crawling motion.
"The earthworm wormed its way through the damp soil to find food."
In plain English: To worm means to move through something tight by twisting your body back and forth.
"The caterpillar will worm its way out of the cocoon in just a few minutes."
The word worm comes from Middle English and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, meaning "snake" or a creature that turns. While it shares roots with the related words vermin and wyrm, its specific sense of an earth-dwelling animal has been used in computing since John Brunner described such entities in his 1975 novel The Shockwave Rider.