Word.ws English Dictionary

antlion

/ˈænt.laɪ.ən/

antlion noun: any of various species of insects, many of them nocturnal, in the family Myrmeleontidae. The adults superficially resemble the unrelated damselflies. The larvae bury themselves in sand below a cone-shaped pit in which they trap insects such as ants.

antlion: any of various species of insects, many of them nocturnal, in the family Myrmeleontidae. The adults...
Image: Zaher.Kadour, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

antlion (plural antlions)

  1. Any of various species of insects, many of them nocturnal, in the family Myrmeleontidae. The adults superficially resemble the unrelated damselflies. The larvae bury themselves in sand below a cone-shaped pit in which they trap insects such as ants.

antlion meaning in Malayalam, Arabic, Malay and Vietnamese

antlion in Malayalam

nocturnal insects
കുഴിയാന kuḻiyāna

antlion in Arabic

nocturnal insects
لَيْث عِفِرِّين layṯ ʕifirrīn, أَسَد النَّمْلِ ʔasad an-namli

antlion in Malay

nocturnal insects
undur-undur

antlion in Vietnamese

nocturnal insects
cúc, kiến sư tử

Forms of antlion

pluralantlions
alternative formant lion

Origin of antlion

From ant + lion. Compare translingual Myrmeleon.

Questions about antlion

What does antlion mean?
Antlion means any of various species of insects, many of them nocturnal, in the family Myrmeleontidae. The adults superficially resemble the unrelated damselflies. The larvae bury themselves in sand below a cone-shaped pit in which they trap insects such as ants.
What is antlion in Malayalam?
Antlion in Malayalam is കുഴിയാന (kuḻiyāna). See Antlion meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is antlion?
Antlion is a noun.
How do you pronounce antlion?
Antlion is pronounced /ˈænt.laɪ.ən/.
What is the plural of antlion?
The plural of antlion is antlions.

Words near antlion in the dictionary

  1. antlia
  2. antliae
  3. antlike
  4. antling
  5. antlings
  6. antlion
  7. antlions
  8. antlophobia
  9. antly
  10. Antman
  11. Antmans

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: antlion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-antlion.wav.

Cite this entry: “antlion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/antlion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.