black fly

1. 1.

   small blackish stout-bodied biting fly having aquatic larvae; sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals

   Synonymsblackflybuffalo gnat

   Broadergnat

   Part ofSimulium

Questions about black fly

What does black fly mean?

black fly means "small blackish stout-bodied biting fly having aquatic larvae; sucks the blood of birds as well as humans and other mammals".

What is another word for black fly?

Close synonyms include blackfly, buffalo gnat. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is black fly a common word?

black fly is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.