MacGuffin
noun
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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
Katie Baron, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025
The plot revolves around a classic Hitchcock MacGuffin: a roll of microfilm, a perfunctory narrative device that perfectly illustrates how spy stories are often really about everything but what everyone’s chasing after.
—Keith Phipps, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025
The main 'MacGuffin' of the plot, adamantium, is found on the massive Celestial body that was half-born in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the end of 2021's Eternals.
—Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 18 Feb. 2025
Who killed the president, and why, is a MacGuffin in the eight-episode thriller.
—Gqlshare, Baltimore Sun, 29 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for MacGuffin
Cite this Entry
“MacGuffin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MacGuffin. Accessed 13 May. 2025.
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