cicada

American  

[si-key-duh, -kah-] / sɪˈkeɪ də, -ˈkɑ- /

noun

• cicadas,
  plural
• cicadae
  plural

1. any large homopterous insect of the family Cicadidae, the male of which produces a shrill sound by means of vibrating membranes on the underside of the abdomen.

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cicada British  

/ sɪˈkɑːdə /

noun

1. any large broad insect of the homopterous family Cicadidae, most common in warm regions. Cicadas have membranous wings and the males produce a high-pitched drone by vibration of a pair of drumlike abdominal organs

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cicadae
  plural
• cicadas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cicada

1350–1400; Middle English < Latin cicāda

Explanation

A cicada is a large, winged insect that makes a distinctive vibrating sound. You might hear hundreds of male cicadas singing loudly on a summer night. Cicadas are often confused with locusts, which are a similar size, a little under two inches long, but are unrelated to cicadas. Depending on the species, cicadas live underground for anywhere from two to seventeen years before emerging for a few weeks of adulthood. Beyond their loud summer buzz, cicadas have a deep cultural history: Their discarded shells are a staple in traditional Chinese medicine, and they’ve been a popular food source from ancient Greece to modern-day Appalachia, where locals affectionately call them "jarflies."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cicada cicadae cicadas

The New Forest cicada, Cicadetta montana, was once found across the national park - but the last confirmed sightings were in the 1990s.

From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026

His organic forms, including a glowing cicada and whale lamp, fall between $2,000 and $4,000.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

The bloody stain of the cicada on the artwork proves to be excellent foreshadowing of where the film is headed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026

Then there was the playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, a winner for “Appropriate,” rocking a cicada brooch tie, a nod to one of the production’s creepy-crawly motifs.

From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024

The creature made horrible click, click, click noises like an enormous, slow-motion cicada.

From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega

How delightful is the breeze:—so very sweet; and there is a sound in the air shrill and summerlike which makes answer to the chorus of the cicadae.

From Phaedrus by Benjamin Jowett

It was in the month of August; and the whole countryside was ringing with the song of the cicadae.

From Fabre, Poet of Science by Bernard Miall

When we stop, which we do often, for emigrants and freight travel together, the kine first, the man after, the whole plain is heard singing with cicadae.

From The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls by Robert Louis Stevenson

Wherever it appeared, moreover, the red-eyed cicadae were in abundance.

From Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits To the Islands in the Arafura Sea by John Lort Stokes

Yet perhaps with sunflowers and cicadae, summer and winter, cattle, wife and family, the settler may create a full and various existence.

From Across the Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson

Some individuals compare the noise to cicadas or even a passing freight train, Price said.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026

Outdoors, the yard is alive with 17-year cicadas who are generating an increasingly eerie background hum while cheerful daytime television hosts lightly suggest ways to turn the situation into a positive.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 2026

Leroy, observing an old superstition, made an oath to the awakening cicadas that he will turn himself in if he’s given the chance to make peace with Berta.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2025

All they can see is leafy tree tops and hear is the echoes of cicadas and birds bouncing off the cliffs.

From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2024

Often the only companions along the path would be the lizards scurrying off in the dust or the cicadas screeching in the bush.

From "The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa" by Alexander Mccall Smith

Related Words

• grasshopper