ergot

noun

er·​got ˈər-gət  -ˌgät 

1

: the black or dark purple sclerotium of fungi (genus Claviceps) that occurs as a club-shaped body replacing the seed of a grass (such as rye)

also : a fungus bearing ergots

2

: a disease of rye and other cereals caused by an ergot fungus

3

a

: the dried sclerotia of an ergot fungus grown on rye and containing several alkaloids (such as ergonovine and ergotamine)

b

: any of such alkaloids used medicinally for their contractile effect on smooth muscle (as of the uterus or blood vessels)

ergotic

(ˌ)ər-ˈgä-tik 

adjective

Examples of ergot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Priestesses of Demeter may have used ergot to brew kykeon for the Eleusinian Mysteries. — Wyatt Williams, Harpers Magazine, 26 May 2026

This is the name for a polypeptide alkaloid that is a derivative of ergot and mimics the activity of dopamine according to CNN. — Gabrielle Rockson, PEOPLE, 29 May 2026

Experts in the 1970s to 1990s believed that the erratic behavior was caused by ergot poisoning, which would have come from ingesting bread made from moldy rye. — Kay Johnson, Twin Cities, 6 Mar. 2024

Some modern historians have attributed it to ergot, a fungus that affects rye and can produce effects similar to ingesting LSD. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 18 June 2026

Until as recently as the 1950s, locals ate loaves contaminated by a rye fungus called ergot, the base ingredient of LSD. — Oscar Holland, CNN, 22 Jan. 2025

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, in 1938, suspected that the recipe included ergot, the fungus on which his discovery was based. — Michael Pollan, New Yorker, 19 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, "spur on a rooster, a similar growth on another bird or mammal, fungal sclerotium resembling a rooster's spur," earlier also argot, going back to Old French argoz (subject case) "spur of a bird or animal," derivative from a Gallo-Romance base *arg- "spine, spiny or thorny plant," probably from a pre-Latin substratal language

Note: For a list and discussion of Romance dialect words based on *arg- see Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, vol. 25, pp. 182-88.

First Known Use

1683, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ergot

• virgate

Medical Definition

ergot

noun

er·​got ˈər-gət  -ˌgät 

1

a

: the black or dark purple sclerotium of fungi of the genus Claviceps that occurs as a club-shaped body which replaces the seed of various grasses (as rye)

b

: any fungus of the genus Claviceps

2

: a disease of rye and other cereals caused by fungi of the genus Claviceps and characterized by the presence of ergots in the seed heads compare ergotism

3

a

: the dried sclerotial bodies of an ergot fungus grown on rye and containing several ergot alkaloids

b

: ergot alkaloid

ergotic

(ˌ)ər-ˈgät-ik 

adjective