gnat
Americannoun
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any of certain small flies, especially the biting gnats or punkies of the family Ceratopogonidae, the midges of the family Chironomidae, and the black flies of the family Simuliidae.
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British. mosquito.
idioms
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gnat
before 900; Middle English; Old English gnæt ( t ); cognate with German (dial.) Gnatze
Explanation
Those tiny black insects swarming around your head just as the sun goes down are probably gnats, very small flies that are extremely annoying but usually don't bite. If those little flying creatures bite you, they're most likely mosquitoes. If they just irritate you, landing on your face and creating a cloud around your head? They're gnats. Although the word comes from a Germanic root related to gnaw and meaning "biting insect," the truth is most gnats just want to fly around, eat plants, and mate. Occasionally they're attracted to the fluids in your eyes, which means you'll have to swat them away.
Vocabulary lists containing gnat
Louder than Hunger
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Vocabulary from Readings, Unit 6
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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:
The scans revealed three insects: a fungus gnat, a black fly, and an ancient ant.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 4, 2026
As in both earlier games in this series, the Thunder treated a Lakers lead like a pesky gnat, swatting it away with a casual flick as if it never existed.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026
The novel opens by describing a local gnat infestation that seems to have spread to the writing, because all the words containing “nat” have been given a silent “g,” as in “extermignate” and “gnaturally.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
“That was one of the most impressive plays I’ve ever seen a player make,” Saban said, comparing it to a cow flicking off a gnat.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 14, 2023
“Not good night. I'll be with you the rest of the night, a vinegar gnat tickling your ear when you need me. But good night and good luck, anyway.”
From "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
“Moths, gnats, and God knows what else,” he’d said in the lead-up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
The summer humidity in Washington often attracts an unpleasant number of insects, and The Weather Channel is reporting that swarms of mosquitoes and gnats may find their way into the cage.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
With no screens or cell phones to take our attention, we ‘worked’ outside in the back of a pickup under a shade tree with a big fan that kept the gnats away.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2025
Furthermore, they also sometimes found gnats emerge from flowers without any corpses of members of that species.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2024
When I walked anywhere near the forest, the gnats stuck to me and flew into my eyes, mouth, and ears, and it drove me crazy.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
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.
