cicada
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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."
Vocabulary lists containing cicada
Amazing Animals, List 1
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"Once Upon a Time," Vocabulary from the short story
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Matilda
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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.
As of February, the Cicada subvariant has been reported in 23 countries, and has also been seen among airline passengers to the U.S. traveling from the United Kingdom, Japan and Kenya.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 20, 2026
Looking for bugs in summer turns into “The Cicada Humans.”
From Salon • Dec. 24, 2024
Cicada watchers have spotted the first insects coming out of the ground, reporting their sightings to apps such as iNaturalist and Cicada Safari.
From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2024
“The whole tree is screaming,” said Kritsky, who created a Cicada Safari app to track where the cicadas are.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 1, 2024
We have traces of the Cicada this year from Columbus, Ohio, to St. Louis.
From Our Common Insects A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses by Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
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.
