aphis

[ ey-fis, af-is ]

noun,plural a·phi·des [ey-fi-deez, af-i-]. /ˈeɪ fɪˌdiz, ˈæf ɪ-/.
  1. an aphid, especially of the genus Aphis.

Origin of aphis

1
First recorded in 1765–75; from New Latin, first recorded in a Greek lexicon of 1523 as áphis, with the Latin gloss cimex “bedbug”; perhaps originally a misreading of Greek kóris “bug”

Words Nearby aphis

Other definitions for APHIS (2 of 2)

APHIS

  1. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use aphis in a sentence

  • The winged aphis also remains, the Ant, the Mosquito and many another of the smaller insects.

    More Hunting Wasps | J. Henri Fabre
  • The aphis-lions crawling over the plants come across the little aphid.

    Little Busybodies | Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody
  • For some years the lime-tree aphis has seriously attacked the lime-trees of the public promenades of Paris.

    The Insect World | Louis Figuier
  • These are the galls formed by the North American poplar gall aphis.

  • Reaumur estimated that a single aphis might produce six thousand millions in one summer.

    Parsons on the Rose | Samuel Browne Parsons

British Dictionary definitions for aphis

aphis

/ (ˈeɪfɪs) /


nounplural aphides (ˈeɪfɪˌdiːz)
  1. any of various aphids constituting the genus Aphis, such as the blackfly

  2. any other aphid

Origin of aphis

1
C18: from New Latin (coined by Linnaeus for obscure reasons)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012