ant

¹ American  

[ant] / ænt /

noun

1. any of numerous black, red, brown, or yellow social insects of the family Formicidae, of worldwide distribution especially in warm climates, having a large head with inner jaws for chewing and outer jaws for carrying and digging, and living in highly organized colonies containing wingless female workers, a winged queen, and, during breeding seasons, winged males, some species being noted for engaging in warfare, slavemaking, or the cultivation of food sources.

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idioms

1. have ants in one's pants, to be impatient or eager to act or speak.

an't ² American  

[ant, ahnt, eynt] / ænt, ɑnt, eɪnt /

1. Chiefly British Dialect. contraction of am not.

2. Dialect. ain't.

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ant- ³ American  

1. variant of anti- before a vowel or h: antacid; anthelmintic .

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-ant ⁴ American  

1. a suffix forming adjectives and nouns from verbs, occurring originally in French and Latin loanwords (pleasant; constant; servant ) and productive in English on this model; -ant has the general sense “characterized by or serving in the capacity of ” that named by the stem (ascendant; pretendant ), especially in the formation of nouns denoting human agents in legal actions or other formal procedures (tenant; defendant; applicant; contestant ). In technical and commercial coinages, -ant is a suffix of nouns denoting impersonal physical agents (propellant; lubricant; deodorant ). In general, -ant can be added only to bases of Latin origin, with a very few exceptions, as coolant .

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ant. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. antenna

2. antonym.

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Ant. ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. Antarctica.

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ant ¹ British  

/ ænt /

noun

1. any small social insect of the widely distributed hymenopterous family Formicidae, typically living in highly organized colonies of winged males, wingless sterile females (workers), and fertile females (queens), which are winged until after mating See also army ant fire ant slave ant wood ant

2. another name for a termite

3. slang to be restless or impatient

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an't ² British  

contraction

1. a rare variant spelling of aren't

2. dialect a variant spelling of ain't

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-ant ³ British  

suffix

1. causing or performing an action or existing in a certain condition; the agent that performs an action

   pleasant

   claimant

   deodorant

   protestant

   servant

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ant- ⁴ British  

prefix

1. a variant of anti-

   antacid

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Other Word Forms

• antlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of ant¹

before 1000; Middle English am ( e ) te, em ( e ) te, Old English ǣmette; cognate with Middle Low German āmete, ēm ( e ) te, Middle Dutch amete, Old High German āmeiza ( ā- a- ³ + meizan to beat, cut, cognate with Albanian mih (he) digs), German Ameise. See emmet, mite ¹

Origin of an't²

First recorded in 1700–10; ain't; aren't

Origin of -ant⁴

< Latin -ant-, present participle stem of verbs in -āre; in many words < French -ant < Latin -ant- or -ent- ( -ent ); akin to Middle English, Old English -and-, -end-, present participle suffix

Example Sentences

Two men appeared in a Nairobi court on Tuesday accused of attempting to smuggle thousands of ants to China, a lucrative trade exposed last year in the east African country.

From Barron's

A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya's main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country.

From BBC

The raw data used to build the models are publicly available for download, and an integrated viewer allows users to explore the completed 3D ants online.

From Science Daily

Watching myself on that screen was like having a million ants crawl underneath my skin, and not just any ants, but the fire ant variety that liked to bite.

From Literature

We were moving so slowly that the ants beneath us reached a destination before we did.

From Literature

Related Words

• aphid
• bee
• beetle
• butterfly
• cockroach
• dragonfly
• flea
• fruit fly
• gnat
• grasshopper
• ladybug
• mite
• mosquito
• moth
• pest
• spider
• termite
• tick