adjective
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having no wings or vestigial wings
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designating primitive insects of the subclass Apterygota, characterized by small size, lack of wings, and larvae resembling the adults: includes the springtails and bristletails
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wingless
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.
In a new study, scientists at Northwestern University investigated how these small, wingless insects, which move across snowy surfaces to find mates and lay eggs, stay alive in freezing conditions.
From Science Daily • Mar. 26, 2026
Around 2018 when a raft of fashion houses joined everyone else in ditching their serif logos for wingless alternatives, something flipped.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025
Just inside, Max Streicher’s “Quadriga” stages massive billowing horses that call to mind wingless Pegasi the way they seem to gallop through the air.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 4, 2024
The wingless insects usually spread through direct contact from the hair of one person to the hair of another.
From Salon • Aug. 25, 2024
All it ever did was take up space, dangling uselessly over my shoulder in its haversack like a wingless khaki albatross for the past four years.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
