noun
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A pesticide used to kill insects. Chlordane and DDT are insecticides.
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Compare fungicide herbicide rodenticide
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of insecticide
Explanation
Insecticide is a type of chemical used to kill insects, like those that have infested a house or a farmer's crops. Words that end in -cide usually have to do with killing, such as genocide, suicide, and patricide. Another is insecticide, which is a word for a substance that kills insects and bugs. Insecticide is a type of chemical, and it often consists of a powder or gas. If your house is full of bedbugs or cockroaches, you need insecticide. Farmers sometimes use insecticides to keep insects from destroying crops. If you're a bug, insecticide is bad news.
Vocabulary lists containing insecticide
"Dr. Seuss" by Jill Foran
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Speeches by César Chávez
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"The Exterminator" by Kirsten Weir
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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.
See Examples For:
Infected wounds are cleaned and debrided to remove any screwworm larvae, after which the animal is treated with an approved insecticide, DeNotta said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
Scientists at UC Riverside have identified a cheaper, highly effective way to kill western drywood termites by drawing them toward insecticide instead of trying to track down every hiding place.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 20, 2026
Unable to afford insecticide, Cuba has been plagued by mosquito-born diseases, overwhelming medical facilities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
Durnell, and the issue of whether a federal insecticide rule preempts state law.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 2, 2025
The fact that the insecticide was applied in very low concentrations is meaningless, as its explosive progress through the natural food chain in the lake demonstrates.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Texas ranchers are using drones, increasing inspections and stepping up use of insecticides to monitor and combat the parasitic fly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Both insecticides have been banned for outdoor agricultural use in the UK, but remain widely used in products for pets.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026
This is because chemicals are designed to target specific organisms or processes, for example insecticides should target insects.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 5, 2026
Small farmers like Nkelane rarely have the means to buy tools or the chemical fertilisers and insecticides they deem necessary to improve their soil.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Several facts suggested that the robins were being poisoned, not so much by direct contact with the insecticides as indirectly, by eating earthworms.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
