from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Any of numerous pale-colored, usually soft-bodied social insects of the order Isoptera that live mostly in warm regions. Many species of termites feed on wood, often destroying trees and wooden structures.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun A white ant; any member of the Termitidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of pseudoneoropterous insects belonging to Termes and allied genera; -- called also white ant. See Illust. of white ant.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A white bodied, wood-consuming insect of the epifamily Termitoidae, orderBlattodea.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun whitish soft-bodied ant-like social insect that feeds on wood
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[New Latin Termes, genus name, from Late Latin termes, termit-, woodworm, alteration of Latin tarmes.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Back-formation from termites. Possibly from Latin termites (three syllables), plural of termes.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word termite.
Examples
Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.
Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.
Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.
Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.
He thinks that searching for individual enzymes in the termite will be a dead end, but that harnessing the power of whole environments might yield results.
"Snooper earned her Beacon Termite Detection Canine Certificate by correctly alerting to fifty consecutive termite-infested sites. Her framed graduation certificate hangs in the office, a reassuring guarantee that, for $190, Snooper can locate wood-munching pests with an accuracy greater than ninety-eight percent.
"Now, Snooper is an ace termite finder, better than any machine. In 1996, at a Pennsylvania entomology conference, a beagle took on the newest mechanical termite-divining device and a high-tech fiber-optic detector. The dog blew both machines away. The final termite-colony detection score: beagle, 12; machines, 2."
—Merrily Weisbord and Kim Kachanoff, Dogs with Jobs: Working Dogs Around the World (NY and London: Pocket Books, 2000), 63
chained_bear commented on the word termite
"Snooper earned her Beacon Termite Detection Canine Certificate by correctly alerting to fifty consecutive termite-infested sites. Her framed graduation certificate hangs in the office, a reassuring guarantee that, for $190, Snooper can locate wood-munching pests with an accuracy greater than ninety-eight percent.
"Now, Snooper is an ace termite finder, better than any machine. In 1996, at a Pennsylvania entomology conference, a beagle took on the newest mechanical termite-divining device and a high-tech fiber-optic detector. The dog blew both machines away. The final termite-colony detection score: beagle, 12; machines, 2."
—Merrily Weisbord and Kim Kachanoff, Dogs with Jobs: Working Dogs Around the World (NY and London: Pocket Books, 2000), 63
July 25, 2009