insect

1. 1.

   small air-breathing arthropod

   Broaderarthropod

   Narrowersocial insectephemeronholometaboladefoliatorpollinatorgallflymecopterancollembolanproturanbeetle

   Part ofArthropodaswarm

   Partsclypeuswingalaair sacthoraxmentum
2. 2.

   a person who has a nasty or unethical character undeserving of respect

   Synonymswormlousedirt ball

   Broaderunpleasant person

Other forms of insect

plural

insects·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about insect

What does insect mean?

insect means "small air-breathing arthropod". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in insect?

insect has 2 syllables: in-sect. The stress falls on "in". In IPA it is /ˈɪnˌsɛkt/.

What is another word for insect?

Close synonyms include worm, louse, dirt ball. 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 insect a common word?

insect is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with insect?

4 words rhyme with insect. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.