insect
Americannoun
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insects
plural
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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.
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any small arthropod, such as a spider, tick, or centipede, having a superficial, general similarity to the insects.
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a contemptible or unimportant person.
adjective
noun
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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 species
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(loosely) any similar invertebrate, such as a spider, tick, or centipede
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a contemptible, loathsome, or insignificant person
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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.
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See Notes at biomass bug entomology
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of insect
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin insectum, noun use of neuter of insectus, past participle of insecāre “to incise, cut”; translation of Greek éntomon “insect,” literally, “notched or incised one”; see entomo-; cf. segment
Explanation
An insect is commonly called a bug. Flies, bees, and wasps are all insects. Insects are the tiny marvels of the natural world. From industrious ants to dazzling butterflies, these miniature critters come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, each with its own special role in ecosystems worldwide. With over a million species identified and countless more waiting to be discovered, insects continue to fascinate scientists and inspire curiosity in nature lovers everywhere. Insect comes from the Latin phrase animal insectum, which means "animal with a cut up (segmented) body."
Vocabulary lists containing insect
Buzzwords for National Honey Bee Day
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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A Cut Above: Sect, Sec
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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:
At least, that’s the scientist’s reasoning for why the names she chose for four newly described Australian insect species were inspired by her favorite world-famous pop star.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
Scientists estimate there may be between 14 and 30 million insect species, and most have not yet been formally documented.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026
Bangladesh is one of the world's most densely populated tropical countries, making it a useful example of both the difficulties facing insect conservation and the opportunities for improving it.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026
Six-year-old Lola noticed the insect in the Outdoor Gardens and the sighting had since been verified by the Cornwall County recorder at Natural England, they added.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
She cupped the insect in her hands and carefully set it free outside.
From "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes" by Eleanor Coerr
But Jones described a rare ecosystem housing specialist plants, butterflies and insects, "where the UK is the epicentre globally".
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
If their CTmax is exceeded, insects succumb to desiccation, muscle spasms and eventual stupor.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
They are among the 12 new species of insects described in an article published in Insect Systematics and Evolution on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026
When Davies and his team gained access to the home, they found it was "absolutely alive" with the insects.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
The mountainside was streaked with sparkling black and blue lines, like the veins of some giant we little insects were inching across.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
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.
