Top Definitions
Quizzes
Examples

musca volitans

[ muhs-kuh -vol-i-tanz ]

/ ˈmʌs kə ˈvɒl ɪˌtænz /

Save This Word!

noun, plural mus·cae vol·i·tan·tes [muhs-kee -vol-i-tan-teez, muhs-ee]. /ˈmʌs ki ˌvɒl ɪˈtæn tiz, ˈmʌs i/. Ophthalmology.

floater (def. 6).

QUIZZES

WERE YOU BAMBOOZLED BY THE WORDS FROM FEBRUARY?

We understand! Words are tricky that way. Take this quiz on the Words of the Day from February, 2021, to show that you’re far from frumious!

Question 1 of 10

Which Word of the Day means “happening within or being the created world of a story”?

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of musca volitans

<New Latin; Latin: fly flying about

Words nearby musca volitans

muscat, Muscat and Oman, muscatel, Muscatine, muscavado, musca volitans, muscid, muscle, muscle beach, musclebound, muscle car

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for musca volitans

Its very name, too (Musca domestica), seemed a mockery, dwelling as it did in that vast solitude.
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 461|Various
The Ox Fly (Musca bovina), a near relation of the house fly, is also very common.
The Insect World|Louis Figuier
The Anthomyides resemble the genus Musca very closely in their habits as well as in their organisation.
The Insect World|Louis Figuier
A fly (Musca domestica) lit on the pane and the pseudoscorpion caught its legs and clung while the fly crawled about.
Journal of Entomology and Zoology: Volume 6, Number 4, December 1914|Various

Just then a large fly, of the genus Musca, made its appearance, and soon became aware of the presence of the scorpion.
The Romance of Natural History, Second Series|Philip Henry Gosse

Learn A New Word Right Now!