erg

See also: ERG and erg.

㋍ U+32CD, ㋍ SQUARE ERG ← ㋌ [U+32CC] Enclosed CJK Letters and Months ㋎ → [U+32CE]

Translingual

Etymology

Abbreviation of English Erromangan.

Symbol

erg

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Sie.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Sie terms

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɜːɡ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɝɡ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)ɡ

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”). Doublet of ergon and work.

Noun

erg (plural ergs)

1. A unit of work or energy, being the amount of work done by a force of one dyne applied through a distance of one centimeter. Equal to 10⁻⁷ joules.

Derived terms

• atomerg
• ergmeter
• foe (unit of energy)
• kiloerg
• megaerg
• megerg, megalerg
• microerg

Translations

unit of work or energy

• Arabic: إرج
• Belarusian: эрг m (erh)
• Bulgarian: ерг m (erg)
• Catalan: erg m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 爾格 / 尔格 (zh) (ěrgé)

• Esperanto: ergo
• Finnish: ergi (fi)
• French: erg (fr) m
• Galician: erguio, ergo, erg
• Georgian: ერგი (ergi)
• Greek: έργιο n (érgio)
• Hebrew: ארג (he)
• Japanese: エルグ (ja) (erugu)
• Kazakh: эрг m (érg)
• Macedonian: ерг m (erg)
• Persian: ارگ (fa) (arg)
• Russian: эрг (ru) m (erg)
• Spanish: ergio (es) m
• Thai: เออร์ก

Etymology 2

From French erg, from Algerian Arabic, from Arabic عِرْق (ʕirq).

the Grand Erg Occidental in the Sahara

Noun

erg (plural ergs or areg)

1. (geomorphology) A large desert region of sand dunes with little or no vegetation, especially in the Sahara.

Etymology 3

Shortening.

Noun

erg (plural ergs)

1. (rowing, slang) An ergometer.

Verb

erg (third-person singular simple present ergs, present participle erging, simple past and past participle erged)

1. (rowing, slang, transitive, intransitive) To use an ergometer.

   I erg every morning.

   She erged a steady state piece.

   • 2022, Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry, page 187:

     What I mean to sy is, the exercise is helping. Although I'm not sure how you erg properly at this stage, Pulling into the sternum would be problematic.

Further reading

• Erg (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• EGR, GER, GRE, Ger, Ger., Ger⁺⁶, Reg, ger, gre, reg

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon).

Noun

erg m (plural ergs)

1. erg (the unit of work or energy)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French erg.

Noun

erg m (plural ergs)

1. erg (large desert region)

Further reading

• “erg”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Dutch

Alternative forms

• erreg, errug (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle Dutch arch, erch, from Old Dutch arg, from Proto-West Germanic *arg, from Proto-Germanic *argaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛrx/, /ˈɛ.rəx/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: erg
• Rhymes: -ɛrx

Adjective

erg (comparative erger, superlative ergst)

1. serious, considerable, severe
2. awful, terrible

Declension

Declension of erg
uninflected	erg
inflected	erge
comparative	erger
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		erg	erger	het ergst het ergste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	erge	ergere	ergste
	n. sing.	erg	erger	ergste
	plural	erge	ergere	ergste
definite		erge	ergere	ergste
partitive		ergs	ergers	—

Derived terms

• allerergst
• verergeren

Descendants

• Afrikaans: erg
• → Caribbean Javanese: èreg

Adverb

erg

1. very

   Het appartement was erg klein.

   The apartment was very small.

2. much; very much

   Ik haat het zo erg.

   I hate it so much.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛʁɡ/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Algerian Arabic, from Arabic عِرْق (ʕirq).

Le Grand Erg Occidental du Sahara

Noun

erg m (plural ergs)

1. erg (desert region)

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”).

Noun

erg m (plural ergs)

1. erg (unit of work done)

Further reading

• “erg”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Anagrams

• gré

Old Norse

Etymology

Borrowed from an Old Irish word, probably áirge (“milking place”) (modern Irish áirí).

Noun

erg n

1. a word of not entirely certain meaning, roughly shepherd's cottage or hill-pasture

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛrk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrk
• Syllabification: erg

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-

Proto-Indo-European *-om

Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom

Proto-Hellenic *wérgon

Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon)lbor.

Polish erg

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon).

Noun

erg m inan

1. (physics) erg (unit of work or energy)

Declension

Declension of erg

	singular	plural
nominative	erg	ergi
genitive	erga	ergów
dative	ergowi	ergom
accusative	erg	ergi
instrumental	ergiem	ergami
locative	ergu	ergach
vocative	ergu	ergi

Etymology 2

Etymology tree

Arabic عِرْق (ʕirq)bor.

Polish erg

Borrowed from Arabic عِرْق (ʕirq).

Noun

erg m inan

1. (geomorphology) erg (desert region)

Declension

Declension of erg

	singular	plural
nominative	erg	ergi
genitive	ergu	ergów
dative	ergowi	ergom
accusative	erg	ergi
instrumental	ergiem	ergami
locative	ergu	ergach
vocative	ergu	ergi

Further reading

• “erg”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[1] (in Polish)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French erg.

Noun

erg m (plural ergi)

1. erg

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	erg	ergul	ergi	ergii
genitive-dative	erg	ergului	ergi	ergilor
vocative	ergule		ergilor

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French erg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeɾɡ/ [ˈeɾɣ̞]
• Rhymes: -eɾɡ
• Syllabification: erg

Noun

erg m (plural ergs)

1. (geology, geography) erg

Further reading

• “erg”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025