MacGuffin

noun

Mac·​Guf·​fin mə-ˈgə-fən 

variants or McGuffin

: an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

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Alfred Hitchcock and MacGuffin

The first person to use MacGuffin as a word for a plot device was Alfred Hitchcock. He borrowed it from an old shaggy-dog story in which some passengers on a train interrogate a fellow passenger carrying a large, strange-looking package. The fellow says the package contains a "MacGuffin," which, he explains, is used to catch tigers in the Scottish Highlands. When the group protests that there are no tigers in the Highlands, the passenger replies, "Well, then, this must not be a MacGuffin." Hitchcock apparently appreciated the way the mysterious package holds the audience's attention and builds suspense. He recognized that an audience anticipating a solution to a mystery will continue to follow the story even if the initial interest-grabber turns out to be irrelevant.

Examples of MacGuffin in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And after eons of being imprisoned and thinking of ways to punish his parasitic children, Knull suddenly realizes that Eddie and Venom’s unique symbiosis has created the MacGuffin necessary to set him free. —Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge, 24 Oct. 2024

The MacGuffin that causes Knull’s generic, interstellar cockroach minions to hunt down Venom/Brock on Earth is a lifeforce-slash-tracking-device known as the Codex. —David Fear, Rolling Stone, 23 Oct. 2024

One example fits the mold of the artful con: the heist movie or spy thriller that depends on knowing the particular procedural lever to deliver results, the MacGuffin nobody else can anticipate, making the person who’s the center of the thriller the smartest person in the room. —Justin Levitt, The Conversation, 22 Oct. 2024

The book of evil spells then becomes the MacGuffin in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. —Eliana Dockterman, TIME, 18 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

coined by Alfred Hitchcock

First Known Use

1939, in the meaning defined above

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Kids Definition

MacGuffin

noun

Mac·​Guf·​fin

variants or McGuffin

mə-ˈgəf-ən

: something (as an object) in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance

Etymology

coined by Alfred Hitchcock, died 1980, British film director