antenna
Americannoun
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a conductor by which electromagnetic waves are sent out or received, consisting commonly of a wire or set of wires; aerial.
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Zoology. one of the jointed, movable, sensory appendages occurring in pairs on the heads of insects and most other arthropods.
noun
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one of a pair of mobile appendages on the heads of insects, crustaceans, etc, that are often whiplike and respond to touch and taste but may be specialized for swimming or attachment
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another name for aerial
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One of a pair of long, slender, segmented appendages on the heads of insects, centipedes, millipedes, and crustaceans. Most antennae are organs of touch, but some are sensitive to odors and other stimuli.
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A metallic device for sending or receiving electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves. Some antennas can send waves in or receive waves from all directions; others are designed to work only in a range of directions.
Usage
Plural word for antenna The plural form of antenna can be either antennas or antennae, pronounced [ an-ten-ee ], depending on the meaning of the term. When used in the sense of "a conductor by which electromagnetic waves are sent out or received," the correct plural form is antennas. When used to describe the sensory appendages of organisms in the field of zoology, the correct plural form is antennae. The plural form of several other singular words ending in -a are also formed in this way, as in camera/cameras, pajama/pajamas, and pizza/pizzas. Irregular nouns whose plurals are formed like antennae, such as larva/larvae and fauna/faunae, derive directly from their original pluralization in Latin.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of antenna
1640–50; < Latin: a sailyard
Explanation
An antenna is a feeler found on the head of a bug. You know, the gross, creepy, pointy things they wave around and use as feelers or sensors. An antenna is also a device that sends radio and television signals. The singular noun antenna is just one of the feelers on a bug’s head — a sensory wand the insect waves around to check out its surroundings. The plural of this antenna is antennae. (Those Greeks and their funny words!) The singular noun antenna is also the thing on top of your television or radio. The plural of this antenna is antennas.
Vocabulary lists containing antenna
Animals (Zoology) - Introductory
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Buzzwords for National Honey Bee Day
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Animals (Zoology) - Middle School
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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:
Each antenna had to emit the same amount of light.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
At that time, she was living in Kyongsong, a coastal county in the North, where families could pick up TV signals across the water with an antenna.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
This helped eliminate extremely weak false detections as well as unusually strong instrumental artifacts that typically appear in only one antenna.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 14, 2026
On July 1, extreme climbers Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus announced their engagement by scaling the Empire State Building and unfurling a banner from its famous antenna that proclaimed the healing power of love.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
He entered Pris’s former apartment, unplugged the TV set, and detached the antenna.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
If Mengucci’s plain talk can’t be received by investors’ antennae or Bluetooth, they’d better check their connectivity.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Today, there’s a Christmas tree fashioned out of communication antennae on her bow.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2025
"We hope to further clarify the structural characteristics of carotenoids that increase quenching efficiency, ultimately enabling the molecular design of pigments that optimize photosynthetic antennae," Fujii said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2025
The conversations I hear in boardrooms around a focus on Africa, for me, they get my antennae raised.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025
I draw his body, his legs, his little antennae, his sour expression.
From "The One and Only Ivan" by Katherine Applegate
They then used this theoretical framework to guide the design and computer simulation of the antennas.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
The team designed the antennas around three essential requirements.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Although the antennas needed different propagation coefficients, they still had to release light in the same consistent manner.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
To overcome this tradeoff, the MIT researchers developed antennas with reduced crosstalk that can be positioned close together without strongly coupling.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Temp, whose antennas had drooped down over his head, reached out and touched Gregor with a feeler.
From "Gregor the Overlander" by Suzanne Collins
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.
