insect

[in-sekt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR insect ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

Origin of insect

1595–1605; < Latin insectum, noun use of neuter of insectus past participle of insecāre to incise, cut (cf. segment); translation of Greek éntomon insect, literally, notched or incised one; see entomo-

Related formsin·sec·ti·val

[in-sek-tahy-vuh l] /ˌɪn sɛkˈtaɪ vəl/, adjectivenon·in·sect, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for insect

tick, vermin, pest, mite, bee, butterfly, gnat, dragonfly, moth, grasshopper, spider, cockroach, termite, ant, mosquito, beetle, flea, aphid, ladybug, fly

Examples from the Web for insect

Contemporary Examples of insect

Bats are crucial to the ecosystem, performing extremely valuable jobs like pollination and insect control.
Bats’ Link to Ebola Finally Solved
Carrie Arnold
November 12, 2014
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.
Lanvin's Artful Fall Mix
Liza Foreman
March 1, 2013
The infighting, personality clashes, and insect politics of the academic world is so accurately funny it hurts.
Remedial Reader: The Essential Richard Russo
David Masciotra
June 20, 2012
An insect is squashed with a “sound like a burst of static.”
Great Weekend Reads
The Daily Beast
July 3, 2011

Historical Examples of insect

The russet of oranges is caused by the bite of an insect on the skin.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 5
Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
The paper was a contribution to the life-history of this minute insect.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884
Various
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 Avenger
E. Phillips Oppenheim
Or that the least insect in Japan has a name twice the length of its body?
Monday or Tuesday
Virginia Woolf

British Dictionary definitions for insect

insect

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 speciesRelated adjective: entomic

(loosely) any similar invertebrate, such as a spider, tick, or centipede

a contemptible, loathsome, or insignificant person

Derived Formsinsectean, insectan or insectile, adjectiveinsect-like, adjective

Word Origin for insect

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for insect

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.

insect in Medicine

insect

[ĭn′sĕkt′]

n.

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.

insect in Science

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.