instar
/ˈɪnstɑɹ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.34 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any one of the several stages of postembryonic development which an arthropod undergoes, between molts, before it reaches sexual maturity.
noun
An arthropod at a specified one of these stages of development.
noun
A stage in development.
Example Sentences
- "In A. orientalis, first and second instars were more susceptible than third instars to H. bacteriophora TF strain, […]"
- "We avoided Tourist Homes, country cousins of Funeral ones, old-fashioned, genteel and showerless, with elaborate dressing tables in depressingly white-and-pink little bedrooms, and photographs of the landlady’s children in all their instars."
- "California spirituality is a late instar of America’s utopian impulse, and corporate meritocracy derives from the Whig dream of the self-made man that entranced young Abraham Lincoln."
- "Yet mark with shining steps the humbler way; And, as angelic feet instar the sky, Drop the bright sparks along the wilderness."
- "Espey could distinguish through the clear darkness the fringed branches of a pine-tree clinging to the heights above and waving against the instarred sky, and below a vague moving whiteness […]"
- "He was dreaming, surely; or were those deep, instarred eyes really fixed upon him with that wistful gaze which he had seen only twice before?"
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɪnstɑɹ/
- British English: /ˈɪnstɑː/