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• wasp
  wasp

  noun

  any of numerous social or solitary hymenopterous insects of the Vespidae, Sphecidae, and allied families, generally having a long, slender body and narrow waist and, in the female, a stinger.
• WASP
  WASP

  noun

  a member of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, an organization disbanded in 1944.
• Wasp
  Wasp

  acronym

  White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: a person descended from N European, usually Protestant stock, forming a group often considered the most dominant, privileged, and influential in American society

wasp

¹ American  

[wosp] / wɒsp /

noun

• wasps
  plural

1. any of numerous social or solitary hymenopterous insects of the Vespidae, Sphecidae, and allied families, generally having a long, slender body and narrow waist and, in the female, a stinger.

2. a person who is snappish or petulant.

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WASP ² American  

[wosp] / wɒsp /

noun

1. a member of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, an organization disbanded in 1944.

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WASP ³ American  

[wosp] / wɒsp /

Or Wasp

noun

1. a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant.

2. a member of the privileged, established white upper middle class in the U.S.

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adjective

1. Waspy.

wasp ¹ British  

/ wɒsp /

noun

1. any social hymenopterous insect of the family Vespidae, esp Vespula vulgaris ( common wasp ), typically having a black-and-yellow body and an ovipositor specialized for stinging See also potter wasp hornet

2. any of various solitary hymenopterans, such as the digger wasp and gall wasp

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Wasp ² British  

/ wɒsp /

acronym

1. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: a person descended from N European, usually Protestant stock, forming a group often considered the most dominant, privileged, and influential in American society

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WASP Cultural  

1. An acronym for “w hite A nglo-S axon P rotestant” — a member of what many consider to be the most privileged and influential group in American society.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• waspiness
  noun
• Waspy
  adjective
• wasplike
  adjective
• waspy
  adjective
• waspily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wasps
  plural

Etymology

Origin of wasp¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English waspe, Old English wæsp, metathetic variant of wæps, itself variant of wæfs; cognate with Dutch wesp, German Wespe; akin to Latin vespa

Origin of WASP³

First recorded in 1955–60

Explanation

Wasps are flying insects related to bees and ants. While some wasps can inflict painful stings, if you don't disturb their nest and avoid stepping on or swatting them, you're unlikely to be stung. Yellow jackets and hornets are types of wasps. Like their bee relatives, wasps are important pollinators. They also help control bug populations by feeding smaller bugs (including pests like aphids) to their young. Because wasp stings can hurt a lot, many people fear wasps. But most wasp species do not have stingers that can pierce a person's skin, and only females have stingers at all. Unless you bother them, these buzzing insects will leave you alone. Wasp is related to the Latin word for wasp, vespa.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wasp WASP Wasp wasps

When researchers dissected the plants, they discovered that a species of predatory wasp was using the hollow chambers for an entirely different purpose.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

The sightings come as one of the UK's largest spider species, the wasp spider, was spotted in the Midlands as warmer temperatures pushed it more than 100 miles away from its usual habitat.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

Rosemary Winnall, from the Wyre Forest Study Group, which maps the wildlife and ecology of the forest in Worcestershire, said the arrival of the wasp spider was to be celebrated.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

My research team would also like you to share your wasp observations with us, so that we can better understand these important insects.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

When the baboon spider was nearly dead—its legs quivered slightly—the wasp flew off.

From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer

Scraping her savings together, Dybbro took flying lessons at $10 an hour — which equates to about $180 an hour today — to earn the pilot’s license required to apply to be a WASP.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2022

My wife is half Brooklyn Jew, half Newport WASP, and throughout her pregnancy, I assumed that our child would look more like her than like me.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

In the original novel, Benjamin was a tall, athletic WASP.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2021

White Anglo-Saxon Protestants born to money are a well-known New York type as well, but Donald Trump is not your classic New York WASP, either.

From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2020

He was a keen golfer, a horn-rimmed glasses wearer, the epitome of the New England WASP.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

Admittedly, these are anecdotes not data: the Big Wasp Survey – the only national wasp monitoring survey – is yet to start sampling this summer.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

Snap a photo of her eating and submit your data to the Wasp Picnic Survey 2026: Ham or Jam?.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

Wasp stings can pose a public health risk – they can cause anaphylactic shock - Mr Horsley points out, so he has a word of advice.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2025

“The Marvels” was a misfire, and movies including “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” appeared to signal a drop-off in quality.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2025

“You bit it last time, Anger!” said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp.

From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

The findings, published in PeerJ, reveal that the wasps are moving into structures that evolved specifically to shelter protective ant colonies.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

The fossil record includes spiders, flies, wasps or beetles, insect larvae, crustaceans, vertebrates such as fish and amphibians, and a remarkable diversity of plants.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 15, 2026

Global warming is thought to explain the trend in social wasps shrinking in size over the last 100 years.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

But summer 2026 is breaking the norm, and there don’t seem to be many wasps about.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026

“They died out because of the dust. Don’t you really know what a wasp is? You must have been alive when there were wasps; that’s only been—”

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick