ant

/ænt/

/ænt/

Other forms: ants

An ant is an insect that lives and works in a large colony of ants. Most ants don't have wings, and some of them have stingers.

Ants are related to both bees and wasps, and like them are social insects. Ant colonies can include anywhere from a few dozen to millions of ants, divided into jobs or castes. There isn't a continent in the world that doesn't have ants living there. The Middle English word for ant was ampte, from the Old English æmette and a Germanic root.

Definitions of ant

1. noun

   social insect living in organized colonies; characteristically the males and fertile queen have wings during breeding season; wingless sterile females are the workers
   synonyms: emmet, pismire

   types:

   Monomorium pharaonis, pharaoh ant, pharaoh's ant

   small red ant of warm regions; a common household pest

   Monomorium minimum, little black ant

   tiny glossy black ant; nests outdoors but invades houses for food

   army ant, driver ant, legionary ant

   tropical nomadic ant that preys mainly on other insects

   carpenter ant

   ant that nests in decaying wood in which it bores tunnels for depositing eggs

   fire ant

   omnivorous ant of tropical and subtropical America that can inflict a painful sting

   Formica rufa, wood ant

   reddish-brown European ant typically living in anthills in woodlands

   slave ant

   any of various ants captured as larvae and enslaved by another species

   slave-maker, slave-making ant

   an ant that attacks colonies of other ant species and carries off the young to be reared as slave ants

   bulldog ant

   any of the large fierce Australian ants of the genus Myrmecia

   Formica fusca

   an ant frequently enslaved

   Formica sanguinea, sanguinary ant

   slave-making ant widely distributed over the northern hemisphere

   Amazon ant, Polyergus rufescens

   small reddish slave-making ant species

   type of:

   hymenopter, hymenopteran, hymenopteron, hymenopterous insect

   insects having two pairs of membranous wings and an ovipositor specialized for stinging or piercing