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• ant
  ant

  noun

  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.
• an't
  an't

  contraction of am not.
• ant-
  ant-

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

  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 .
• ant.
  ant.

  abbreviation

  antenna
• Ant.
  Ant.

  abbreviation

  Antarctica.

ant

¹ American  

[ant] / ænt /

noun

• ants
  plural

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, aynt] / 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

Derived Forms

• antlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• ants
  plural

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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; see origin at 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- ( see -ent); akin to Middle English, Old English -and-, -end-, present participle suffix

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Explanation

An ant is an insect that lives and works in a large colony of ants. Most ants don't have wings, and some of them have stingers. Ants are related to both bees and wasps, and like them are social insects. Ant colonies can include anywhere from a few dozen to millions of ants, divided into jobs or castes. There isn't a continent in the world that doesn't have ants living there. The Middle English word for ant was ampte, from the Old English æmette and a Germanic root.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ant an't ant- -ant ant. Ant. ants

One comparison would be an ant somehow leaving a noticeable mark hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

He says he felt like an ant walking into the huge facility on his first day in prison; the guard towers reminded him of skyscrapers.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

The only English population of the narrow-headed ant lives in the trust's Chudleigh Knighton Heath nature reserve and the nationally scarce erratic ant was recently discovered at the charity's Bovey Heathfield nature reserve.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

President Lee, a self-described ant, talked up his stockholdings on the campaign trail last year and pledged to nearly double the Kospi to a record 5,000 points by 2030.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Superlong tentacles shoot out of their bodies and grab the chalk out of her hands; or brain control makes her think she is shrinking to the size of an ant when really she is normal.

From "Invisible Inkling" by Emily Jenkins

"But thy an't had thi surprise yet," he said, ominously.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2015

“She’s the forgotten one, an’t she? Our mother—she saw it in her palm, didn’t she?”

From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

“Sir, I reckon our time is over for today. My deepest apologies, an’t please Your Honor.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Now I say, my dear, in our case, for lady, read——mum! a word to the wise.—I am in a fine flow of spirits, an’t I?

From "Emma" by Jane Austen

I broke out crying and begging pardon, and hugged Joe round the neck: who dropped the poker to hug me, and to say, “Ever the best of friends; an’t us, Pip? Don’t cry, old chap!”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

Without human pressures, then, the ant- and termite-eating contingent of the mammalian fauna might be even more common.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 22, 2013

At lunch, Carly and I discussed the peculiar habitats of the guild of ant- and termite-loving mammals.

From Scientific American ● Feb. 22, 2013

The ant- bear has not a tooth in his head, still he roves fearless on in the same forests with the jaguar and boa-constrictor.

From Wanderings in South America by Charles Waterton

But the giant ant- eater was the most wonderful, for he walked on his knuckles, and strode majestically about, for all the world like a mammalian peacock, exhibiting his great tail.

From Fan : the story of a young girl's life by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

Metochy: the relation borne to ants by the tolerated guests in ant- hills; demanding nothing from and giving nothing to the ants; see symphily and synecthry.

From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by John. B. Smith

Another large group of hovering accents is that formed by French words with such terminations as -our, -ance, -ace, -age, -ant, -ess.

From English Verse Specimens Illustrating its Principles and History by Raymond MacDonald Alden

The present participle active is formed by -ant.

From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark

Abundance is in Mistral's dialect aboundànci. -ant, -anto.

From Frédéric Mistral Poet and Leader in Provence by Charles Alfred Downer

They are formed in the Active by means of the endings -ant, -int, and -ont, and in the Passive by means of the endings -at, -it, -ot, with the addition of the adjectival termination -a.

From Esperanto Self-Taught with Phonetic Pronunciation by William W. Mann

“A speaking ant. I’ll warrant y’art being cute.”

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

“You think it was a him? It’s just a dumb ant. Who cares?”

From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

“All I did was step on a dumb ant. What is he so freaked out about?”

From "Fish in a Tree" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Demot′ic, pertaining to the people: popular: in Egypt. ant., of a kind of writing distinguished from the hieratic, or priestly, and from hieroglyphics.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various

Fo 111a, 1, Sic habetur in leg. ant., corresponds literally with 1 Cel.,

From Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Louise Seymour Houghton

Ant. that the description of the coat, such as we find at the end of the Chronique des Tribulations, was borrowed.

From Life of St. Francis of Assisi by Louise Seymour Houghton

I saw her Sir Ant. doe you know her?

From Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (2 of 10) - the Humourous Lieutenant by Francis Beaumont

The writer of the article Ansa in Smith's Dict. of G. and R. Ant. thinks, however that the two were not the same.

From The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis by John Selby Watson

Fortunately the danger was perceived by Ant. à Wood, who obtained leave of the Vice-Chancellor to dry them, which he accomplished by spreading them out in the sun upon the leads of the Schools' quadrangle.

From Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century by William Dunn Macray

Yech-cap.—For a detailed account of the yech or yâch of Kashmîr see Ind. Ant. vol. xi. pp. 260-261 and footnotes.

From Tales of the Punjab by Flora Annie Steel

Imagine looking at the mirror and seeing ants crawling all over the lower part of your face.

From Slate ● Oct. 21, 2026

In exchange, the ants aggressively protect their host plants from leaf-eating insects such as caterpillars.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

A two Michelin-starred restaurant in Seoul has been fined for using ants as a dessert garnish.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

Workers swarmed the mound of metal like ants on a hill.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

“Dallben has taught me much about ants, but nothing of a lame one.”

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

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