insect definition | Dictionary.com

in⋅sect

[in-sekt]

–noun

1.	any animal of the class Insecta, comprising small, air-breathing arthropods having the body divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), and having three pairs of legs and usually two pairs of wings.

2.	any small arthropod, such as a spider, tick, or centipede, having a superficial, general similarity to the insects. Compare arachnid.

3.	a contemptible or unimportant person.

–adjective

4.	of, pertaining to, like, or used for or against insects: an insect bite; insect powder.

Origin:
1595–1605; < L insectum, n. use of neut. of insectus ptp. of insecāre to incise, cut (cf. segment ); trans. of Gk éntomon insect, lit., notched or incised one; see entomo-

Related forms:

in⋅sec⋅ti⋅val [in-sek-tahy-vuh

, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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in·sect (ĭn'sěkt')

1. Any of numerous usually small arthropod animals of the class Insecta, having an adult stage characterized by three pairs of legs and a body segmented into head, thorax, and abdomen and usually having two pairs of wings. Insects include the flies, crickets, mosquitoes, beetles, butterflies, and bees.
2. Any of various similar arthropod animals, such as spiders, centipedes, or ticks. See Regional Note at lightning bug.
An insignificant or contemptible person.

[Latin īnsectum, from neuter past participle of īnsecāre, to cut up (translation of Greek entomon, segmented, cut up, insect) : in-, in; see in-² + secāre, to cut; see sek- in Indo-European roots.]
in'sect' adj., in'sec·ti'val (ĭn'sěk-tī'vəl) adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Insect

In"sect\, n. [F. insecte, L. insectum, fr. insectus, p. p. of insecare to cut in. See Section. The name was originally given to certain small animals, whose bodies appear cut in, or almost divided. Cf. Entomology.]

1. (Zo["o]l.) One of the Insecta; esp., one of the Hexapoda. See Insecta.

Note: The hexapod insects pass through three stages during their growth, viz., the larva, pupa, and imago or adult, but in some of the orders the larva differs little from the imago, except in lacking wings, and the active pupa is very much like the larva, except in having rudiments of wings. In the higher orders, the larva is usually a grub, maggot, or caterpillar, totally unlike the adult, while the pupa is very different from both larva and imago and is inactive, taking no food.

2. (Zo["o]l.) Any air-breathing arthropod, as a spider or scorpion.

3. (Zo["o]l.) Any small crustacean. In a wider sense, the word is often loosely applied to various small invertebrates.

4. Fig.: Any small, trivial, or contemptible person or thing. --Thomson.

Insect powder,a powder used for the extermination of insects; esp., the powdered flowers of certain species of Pyrethrum, a genus now merged in Chrysanthemum. Called also Persian powder.

Insect

In"sect\, a. 1. Of or pertaining to an insect or insects.

2. Like an insect; small; mean; ephemeral.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : insect

Spanish: insecto,

German: das Insekt,

Japanese: 昆虫

More Translations »

insect

1601, from L. insectum (animal) "(animal) with a notched or divided body," lit. "cut into," from neut. pp. of insectare "to cut into, to cut up," from in- "into" + secare "to cut" (see section). Pliny's loan-translation of Gk. entomon "insect" (see entomology), Aristotle's term for this class of life, in ref. to their "notched" bodies. First in Eng. 1601 in Holland's translation of Pliny. Translations of Aristotle's term also form the usual word for "insect" in Welsh (trychfil, from trychu "cut" + mil "animal"), Serbo-Cr. (zareznik, from rezati "cut"), Rus. (nasekomoe, from sekat "cut"), etc. Insecticide first recorded 1865.

Main Entry: in·sect
Pronunciation: 'in-"sekt
Function: noun
: any arthropod of the class Insecta —insect adjective

insect in·sect (ĭn'sěkt')
n.

Any of numerous usually small arthropod animals of the class Insecta, having an adult stage characterized by three pairs of legs and a body segmented into head, thorax, and abdomen and usually having two pairs of wings.
Any of various similar arthropod animals, such as spiders, centipedes, or ticks.

insect (ĭn'sěkt') Pronunciation Key
Any of very numerous, mostly small arthropods of the class Insecta, having six segmented legs in the adult stage and a body divided into three parts (the head, thorax, and abdomen). The head has a pair of antennae and the thorax usually has one or two pairs of wings. Most insects undergo substantial change in form during development from the young to the adult stage. More than 800,000 species are known, most of them beetles. Other insects include flies, bees, ants, grasshoppers, butterflies, cockroaches, aphids, and silverfish. See Notes at biomass , bug , entomology.

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