Word.ws English Dictionary

hornet fly

hornet fly noun: any member of the genus Spilomyia of hoverflies (Syrphidae), many with coloring resembling that of hornets, some of which are predators of insect pests, others nectar-feeding pollinators.

Noun

hornet fly (plural hornet flies)

  1. Any member of the genus Spilomyia of hoverflies (Syrphidae), many with coloring resembling that of hornets, some of which are predators of insect pests, others nectar-feeding pollinators.
  2. (archaic) Any of the genus Asilus and allied genera of large, fierce dipterous robber flies (Asilidae) that often prey on insects larger than themselves to suck their blood, the males of which resemble hornets in coloring.

Forms of hornet fly

pluralhornet flies

Words formed from hornet fly

  • bald-faced hornet fly
  • broad-banded hornet fly
  • Crandall's hornet fly
  • four-lined hornet fly
  • interrupted hornet fly
  • Rocky Mountain hornet fly
  • western hornet fly

Questions about hornet fly

What does hornet fly mean?
Hornet fly means any member of the genus Spilomyia of hoverflies (Syrphidae), many with coloring resembling that of hornets, some of which are predators of insect pests, others nectar-feeding pollinators.
What part of speech is hornet fly?
Hornet fly is a noun.
What is the plural of hornet fly?
The plural of hornet fly is hornet flies.

Words near hornet fly in the dictionary

  1. horneros
  2. horners
  3. hornes
  4. hornet
  5. hornet flies
  6. hornet fly
  7. hornet's nest
  8. hornetlike
  9. hornets
  10. hornets' nest
  11. hornets' nests

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hornet fly (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.

Last updated:

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