English Explanatory Dictionary

mosquito

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A small flying insect of the family Culicidae, the females of which bite humans and animals and suck blood, leaving an itching bump on the skin, and sometimes carrying diseases like malaria, dengue and yellow fever.
verb
  1. To fly close to the ground, seemingly without a course.
name
  1. A settlement in Newfoundland and Labrador.
noun
  1. The De Havilland Mosquito, a Second World War military aircraft.
noun
  1. Dated form of Miskito.

Pronunciation

/mɒˈskiː.təʊ/ /məsˈki.toʊ/ /məsˈkitə/ /məˈskiːto/ [məˈs̠kɪt̞o] [-t̞ə] en-us-mosquito.ogg en-uk-mosquito.ogg

Word forms

mosquito mosquitoes mosquitos muskito musquito mosquitoing mosquitoed

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish mosquito (“gnat”), diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca (“fly”), from Proto-Indo-European *mūs- (“fly, stinging fly, gnat”). Cognate with West Flemish meuzie (“mosquito”), dialectal Swedish mausa (“fly”), Lithuanian musė (“a fly”) and Sicilian muschitta (“midge”). See also midge. First attested in the 1580s.

Synonyms

mossie mozzie skeeter

Related words

mossie mozzie skeeter

Derived words

anopheles mosquito antimosquito Asian tiger mosquito common mosquito common house mosquito culex mosquito house mosquito malaria mosquito marsh mosquito mosquital mosquitarium mosquiticide mosquito bar mosquito bite mosquitocide Mosquito Coast mosquito coil mosquito drawers mosquito dunk mosquito-eater mosquitoey mosquito fern mosquito fish mosquitofish mosquito fleet mosquito flower mosquitogenic mosquito hawk mosquitoish mosquito larva mosquitoless mosquito net mosquito netting mosquito party mosquito plant mosquito press mosquitoproof mosquito wire nail mosquito neato mosquito salt-marsh mosqito skeeto snow mosquito tea mosquito tiger mosquito yellow-fever mosquito
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