flea
/ˈfliː/
flea noun: a small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities. Also the obsolete spelling of flay.
Noun
flea (plural fleas or (archaic or UK dialectal) fleen)
- A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.
- A thing of no significance.
- The nation of beggars on horseback which first colonized California has left behind it many traditions unworthy of conservation, and multitudinous fleas not at all traditional, but even less keepworthy […]1871, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, The Heart of the Continent, page 414
Verb
flea (third-person singular simple present fleas, present participle fleaing, simple past and past participle fleaed or flead)
- To remove fleas from (an animal).
- I have seen a Lubra, or native woman, suckling two puppies; and, like monkeys, these ladies have a particular fancy for fleaing their dogs.1861, Horace William Wheelwright, Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist, page 192
- Synonyms:
- deflea
Also used as
flea is also the obsolete spelling of flay.
flea meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
flea in Hindi
- parasitic insect
- पिस्सू pissū
flea in Tamil
- parasitic insect
- தெள்ளு teḷḷu, செள்ளு ceḷḷu, தெள்கு teḷku
flea in Marathi
- पिस्सू, पिसू, फ्ली
flea in Urdu
- parasitic insect
- پسو pissū
More languagesFewer languages
- flea in Bengali
- উপমক্ষিকা upomokkhika
- flea in Telugu
- ఫ్లీ
- flea in Malayalam
- ചെള്ള് ceḷḷŭ
- flea in Kannada
- ಫ್ಲೀ
- flea in Punjabi
- ਫਲੀਆ, ਫਲੀ
- flea in Gujarati
- ચાંચડ, ચાંચડો, ચાંચડી
- flea in Odia
- ଫ୍ଲି
- flea in Sanskrit
- प्लुषि plúṣi
- flea in Sinhala
- බලුමැක්කා balumækkā
- flea in Nepali
- पिस्सू, फ्ली
- flea in Pashto
- ورږه wrə́ẓa
- flea in Tagalog
- pulgas, hanip
- flea in Arabic
- بُرْغُوث burḡūṯ
- flea in Malay
- pinjal
- flea in Indonesian
- pinjal
- flea in Persian
- کک kak, کیک kayk
- flea in Thai
- หมัด màt
- flea in Vietnamese
- bọ chét
- flea in Myanmar
- လှေး hle:, အလှေး a.hle:
Examples of flea in a sentence
- If he bothers me again, I'll send him home with a flea in his ear.
- I had to deflea our cat with a flea comb, even though it wears a flea collar.
- Lice, fleas, ticks, and mites are widely spread parasites.
Synonyms of flea
Forms of flea
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | fleas |
| plural UK (archaic, dialectal) | fleen |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | fleas |
| present participle | fleaing |
| past participle | fleaed |
| past | fleaed |
| past participle | flead |
| past | flead |
Origin of flea
From Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin to Proto-Indo-European *plus- (compare Latin pulex, Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi)). The archaic plural fleen is from Middle English fleen, flen, from Old English flēan (“fleas”).
Alternative forms.
Words formed from flea
- antiflea
- beach flea
- beflea
- chigoe flea
- deflea
- dog-flea model
- duck flea
- eight-spotted flea beetle
- fishhook flea
- fit as a flea
- flea allergy
- flea-bag
- fleabag
- fleabane
- flea beetle
- fleabite
- flea-bitten
- fleabitten
- flea bomb
- fleaborne
- fleabrain
- flea-brained
- flea circus
- flea collar
- flea comb
- flea flicker
- flea in one's ear
- flealike
- flea-louse
- flea market
- fleapit
- flea powder
- flea-powder
- fleaproof
- flea-ridden
- flea shampoo
- fleasome
- flea tree
- fleaweed
- fleawort
- hop flea
- house flea
- human flea
- leaf flea
- rabbit flea
- sandflea
- sand flea
- sea flea
- snow flea
- stickfast flea
- water flea
Phrases with flea
- flea bag
- flea pit
- flea bags
- flea pits
- flea bombs
- flea trees
- flea beetles
- flea collars
- flea markets
- flea circuses
- flea flickers
- flea marketer
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with flea
Questions about flea
- What does flea mean?
- Flea means a small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.
- What is flea in Hindi?
- Flea in Hindi is पिस्सू (pissū). See Flea meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is flea?
- Flea can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce flea?
- Flea is pronounced /ˈfliː/.
- What is the plural of flea?
- The plural of flea is fleas.
Words near flea in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: flea (page history and authors); flea (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); flea (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-flea.ogg.
Cite this entry: “flea.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/flea. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.