insect
Americannoun
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any animal of the class Insecta, comprising small, air-breathing arthropods having the body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), and having three pairs of legs and usually two pairs of wings.
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any small arthropod, such as a spider, tick, or centipede, having a superficial, general similarity to the insects.
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a contemptible or unimportant person.
adjective
noun
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any small air-breathing arthropod of the class Insecta, having a body divided into head, thorax, and abdomen, three pairs of legs, and (in most species) two pairs of wings. Insects comprise about five sixths of all known animal species, with a total of over one million named species
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(loosely) any similar invertebrate, such as a spider, tick, or centipede
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a contemptible, loathsome, or insignificant person
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Any of very numerous, mostly small arthropods of the class Insecta, having six segmented legs in the adult stage and a body divided into three parts (the head, thorax, and abdomen). The head has a pair of antennae and the thorax usually has one or two pairs of wings. Most insects undergo substantial change in form during development from the young to the adult stage. More than 800,000 species are known, most of them beetles. Other insects include flies, bees, ants, grasshoppers, butterflies, cockroaches, aphids, and silverfish.
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See Notes at biomass bug entomology
Other Word Forms
- insect-like adjective
- insectean adjective
- insectival adjective
- noninsect noun
Etymology
Origin of insect
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin insectum, noun use of neuter of insectus, past participle of insecāre “to incise, cut”; translation of Greek éntomon “insect,” literally, “notched or incised one”; entomo-; segment
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.
Originally inspired by traditional summer insect hunts in Japan, gameplay usually involves capturing and training fantastical "pocket monsters" resembling anything from mice to dragons, before sending them into battle against one another.
From Barron's
"Research has shown that chalk stream salmon are genetically unique and irreplaceable. They play a vital role in the ecosystem, supporting insects, birds, mammals, and other river life," the trust said.
From BBC
A study published in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry by Oxford University Press reports that widely used flea and tick treatments for dogs and cats may pose a serious threat to insects in the natural environment.
From Science Daily
Personal tragedy had no more importance than the incognizant plight of insects.
"With pPro-MobV we have brought gene-drive thinking from insects to bacteria as a population engineering tool," said Bier, a faculty member in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology.
From Science Daily
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.
