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insect
[ in-sekt ]
noun
- 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.
- any small arthropod, such as a spider, tick, or centipede, having a superficial, general similarity to the insects. Compare arachnid.
- a contemptible or unimportant person.
adjective
- of, pertaining to, like, or used for or against insects:
an insect bite; insect powder.
insect
/ ˈɪnsɛkt /
noun
- 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 entomic
- (loosely) any similar invertebrate, such as a spider, tick, or centipede
- a contemptible, loathsome, or insignificant person
insect
/ ĭn′sĕkt′ /
- 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.
- See Notes at biomass
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Derived Forms
- inˈsectean, adjective
- ˈinsect-ˌlike, adjective
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Other Words From
- in·sec·ti·val [in-sek-, tahy, -v, uh, l], adjective
- non·insect noun
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Word History and Origins
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Word History and Origins
Origin of insect1
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Example Sentences
Bats are crucial to the ecosystem, performing extremely valuable jobs like pollination and insect control.
Their nightly flights bring with them the powers to pollinate plants and control insect populations.
When you crush an insect, you have all these long worms uncoiling from the belly.
One of these heroes is an insect-loving contemporary of Charles Darwin, the other a crocodile-wrestling Steve Irwin acolyte.
On the heels of a U.N. report urging more insect consumption, Nina Strochlic rounds up the yummiest.
To the animal whose special finger enables him to catch the insect?
In my house there has never been sufficient food for a solid meal, and I have not land enough even for an insect to rest upon.
The heat of the water destroys the insect and instantly removes the pain of the bite.
This insect is much less in size than the former, and is more convex.
There is a wretched figure of this insect given in the fourth volume of Cuvier's Regne Animal.
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