MacGuffin [mÉ™-GUFF-in]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: British English, 1930s
1. An object or device in a movie or a book that serves merely as a trigger for the plot.
Examples of macguffin in a sentence
"The Holy Grail serves as a MacGuffin in many films, including 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,' 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,' and 'The Da Vinci Code.'"
"Critics said his story relied too heavily upon a MacGuffin and never resolved the mystery."
