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
Derived 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.
They examined winged adults that were actively searching for hosts and compared them with wingless adults collected from deer after they had adopted their parasitic lifestyle.
From Science Daily • Jun. 2, 2026
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
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
The wingless insects hide in mattresses and bedding and feed on blood, typically biting at night.
From Reuters • Nov. 8, 2023
To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size.
From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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.
