weta
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of weta
Māori
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.
The Maori intended to eat the kiore, but the rats multiplied and spread far faster than they could be consumed, along the way feasting on weta, young tuatara, and the eggs of ground-nesting birds.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 15, 2014
Among the hundreds of species was the new weta, which bears a mostly black body, a distinctive white band behind its head and leg spines unlike other weta species.
From Scientific American • Dec. 11, 2012
Some giant weta species — “very cool, prickly little monsters,” as Weta Workshop puts it — weigh in at up to 30 grams and boast bodily lengths of up to 10 centimeters.
From Scientific American • Dec. 11, 2012
According to Fact Bites: Bug Bites by Roger Priddy, the weta is referred to by the Maori as “the god of ugly things.”
From National Geographic
The tree weta is the world's heaviest adult insect; the larvae of goliath beetles are even heavier.
From National Geographic
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.