ant
1 Americannoun
idioms
abbreviation
-
antenna
-
antonym.
abbreviation
noun
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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
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another name for a termite
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slang to be restless or impatient
suffix
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012prefix
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Other 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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They’ll find another way to cross that stream, no matter how many ants it takes.
Six bumble bee colonies foraged in a shared arena where they could approach feeders that either had ants nearby or had no ants at all.
From Science Daily
Also, Patti is one of those people who can smell ants!
From Salon
But researchers in the field of swarm robotics are training machines to behave like ants, bees and even slime molds—simple creatures that achieve remarkable feats through collective intelligence.
Nvidia’s latest chips are mostly encased in plastic packages and resemble an ant or a beetle with copper wires for legs.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.