insect
[in-sekt]
- 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.
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- of, pertaining to, like, or used for or against insects: an insect bite; insect powder.
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Origin of insect
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
tickverminpestmitebeebutterflygnatdragonflymothgrasshopperspidercockroachtermiteantmosquitobeetlefleaaphidladybugflyExamples from the Web for insect
Contemporary Examples
Bats are crucial to the ecosystem, performing extremely valuable jobs like pollination and insect control.
When you crush an insect, you have all these long worms uncoiling from the belly.
Vampires without Glitter or Girl Problems: Inside Guillermo del Toro’s ‘The Strain’Andrew Romano
July 14, 2014
The idea could be seen as well on cocktail looks in insect prints with appliqués winged insects resting on them.
The infighting, personality clashes, and insect politics of the academic world is so accurately funny it hurts.
An insect is squashed with a “sound like a burst of static.”
Historical Examples
The russet of oranges is caused by the bite of an insect on the skin.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
The paper was a contribution to the life-history of this minute insect.
No; the spirit of a lion is not to be roused by the teasing of an insect.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
There was no sound save the burring of some night insect over his head.
The AvengerE. Phillips Oppenheim
Or that the least insect in Japan has a name twice the length of its body?
Monday or TuesdayVirginia Woolf
insect
- 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 speciesRelated adjective: entomic
- (loosely) any similar invertebrate, such as a spider, tick, or centipede
- a contemptible, loathsome, or insignificant person
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin insectum (animal that has been) cut into, insect, from insecāre, from in- ² + secāre to cut; translation of Greek entomon insect
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for insect
n.
c.1600, from Latin (animal) insectum "(animal) with a notched or divided body," literally "cut into," from neuter past participle of insectare "to cut into, to cut up," from in- "into" (see in- (2)) + secare "to cut" (see section (n.)). Pliny's loan-translation of Greek entomon "insect" (see entomology), which was Aristotle's term for this class of life, in reference to their "notched" bodies.
First in English in 1601 in Holland's translation of Pliny. Translations of Aristotle's term also form the usual word for "insect" in Welsh (trychfil, from trychu "cut" + mil "animal"), Serbo-Croatian (zareznik, from rezati "cut"), Russian (nasekomoe, from sekat "cut"), etc.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
insect
(ĭn′sĕkt′)- Any of numerous usually small arthropod animals of the class Insecta, having an adult stage characterized by three pairs of legs and a body segmented into head, thorax, and abdomen and usually having two pairs of wings.
- Any of various similar arthropod animals, such as spiders, centipedes, or ticks.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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 bug entomology.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.