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.
Behind the apostles, in a beehive of sociable activity, wingless angels busy themselves with rituals—tending to oil lamps, burning cypress branches, playing musical instruments.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
In contrast, workers are wingless females with smaller body size and degenerated reproductive tracts, usually without a sperm storage organ.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 22, 2024
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, pill-shaped insects feed on mammalian blood and, as indicated by their name, are notorious for infesting human dwellings.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2024
Also present in prodigious numbers are microscopic mites and primitive wingless insects called springtails.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
