deimatic
deimatic adjective: designed to startle or frighten a potential predator.
Adjective
deimatic (comparative more deimatic, superlative most deimatic)
- Designed to startle or frighten a potential predator.
- These deimatic eye spots do not have the same function as those that deflect predatory attack. They give to their owner the appearance of a considerable increase in size.1988, John L. Cloudsley-Thompson, Evolution and Adaptation of Terrestrial Arthropods, page 122
- Intermediate between the clear cases of camouflage and signaling are deimatic displays.2016, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Other Minds, William Collins, published 2018, page 125
- Synonyms:
- dymantic
Synonyms of deimatic
Forms of deimatic
| comparative | more deimatic |
|---|---|
| superlative | most deimatic |
Origin of deimatic
From Ancient Greek δειματόω (deimatóō).
Questions about deimatic
- What does deimatic mean?
- Deimatic means designed to startle or frighten a potential predator.
- What part of speech is deimatic?
- Deimatic is an adjective.
Words near deimatic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deimatic (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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Cite this entry: “deimatic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deimatic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.