sandfly
Americannoun
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sandflies
plural
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any of several small, bloodsucking, dipterous insects of the family Psychodidae that are vectors of several diseases of humans.
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any of several other small, bloodsucking, dipterous insects, as one of the family Heleidae or Simuliidae.
noun
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any of various small mothlike dipterous flies of the genus Phlebotomus and related genera: the bloodsucking females transmit diseases including leishmaniasis: family Psychodidae
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any of various similar and related flies
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sandfly
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 sandfly commonly shelters in cracks in poorly plastered mud houses, anthills and soil fissures, multiplying during the rainy season after prolonged drought.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
Males of the sandfly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, use terpene pheromones to lure females and other males to mating sites.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2024
The team from the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry analysed the genome of the Lutzomyia longipalpis, a species of sandfly native to Brazil and South America that can spread a disease called Leishmaniasis.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2024
Malaria, dysentery, smallpox, typhus and sandfly fever were everpresent.
From Time Magazine Archive
There, in the spring of 1955, some 2000 acres of salt marsh in St. Lucie County were treated with dieldrin in an attempt to eliminate the larvae of the sandfly.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"Climate change is expanding the range of sandflies and increasing the risk of outbreaks in new areas," said Dr Cherinet Adera, a researcher at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative in Nairobi.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
The pet-disease watch list includes infections spread by the growing populations of mosquitoes, ticks, sandflies and fleas, such as heartworm, lungworm, Lyme disease and leishmaniasis.
From Nature ● Mar. 28, 2017
The eyes of two dozen protesters turn to the burly publican as he swats sandflies from his face and begins to speak.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2016
But fewer could name the disease spread by those pesky sandflies: The ulcerating skin infection called leishmaniasis.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2011
There, amid the sandflies, we ate dinner while the cameraman took pictures.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
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.
