mosquito
/məsˈki.toʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.61 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
name
noun
The De Havilland Mosquito, a Second World War military aircraft.
Example Sentences
- "I do not quite know what it was that made me poke my head out of the friendly shelter of the blanket, perhaps because I found that the mosquitoes were biting right through it."
- "We lit a driftwood fire to help keep the mosquitoes away. It was partially successful."
- "Nicaragua has been investigating the possibility that the 1985 outbreak of dengue fever along its Honduran border may have resulted from the release of infected mosquitos by U.S. reconnaissance overflights."
- "Sue had climbed up to the rafters and attached her mosquito netting over one of the exposed beams in the ceiling, and Edgar had climbed into the bed under it so no flying buzzies would mess with his ears."
- "October in Orania can be charming. When the sun sets, long ribbons of burnt orange settle on the horizon. The flies and mosquitoes that come with the oppressive summer heat haven’t arrived yet. It is Magdalene Kleynhans’ favourite time of year. “You can sit outside until late into the night,” says the businesswoman, whose family spend much of their time outdoors. Her children fish from the banks of the Orange River whenever they choose. Kleynhans leaves the house unlocked. “It’s a good life. It’s a big privilege.”"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /məsˈki.toʊ/
- British English: /mɒˈskiː.təʊ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
anopheles mosquito
Asian tiger mosquito
common mosquito
common house mosquito
culex mosquito
house mosquito
malaria mosquito
marsh mosquito