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

Did you know?

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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

While the Silver/Ruby Slippers are the magical MacGuffin in the majority of Wizard of Oz stories, the Grimmerie is hugely important to the Wicked timeline. —

Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2024 Every rom-com needs that love-story MacGuffin known as the Thing That Keeps Our Two Romantic Co-Stars Apart. —

Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 27 Nov. 2024 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 See all Example Sentences for MacGuffin