insectual
insectual adjective: of, relating to, or characteristic of an insect.
Adjective
insectual (comparative more insectual, superlative most insectual)
- Of, relating to, or characteristic of an insect.
- Cochineal is made from an insect. Every pound weight of this valuable drug is said to contain 70,000 insects boiled to death; so that the annual sacrifice of insectual life to procure our scarlet and crimson dyes amounts to about 49,000,000 of these minute members of the vast creation.1844 March 31, “Answers to Correspondents”, in The Era, volume VI, number 288, London, page 4, column 2
- The remembrance of those horrible nights, which were for the most part sleepless, makes us even now shudder, varied only, as they were, by occasional volleys of curses from the men, upon all our persecutors, both human and insectual, if we may coin a word.1848, James A. Rhodes, “Description of the Navy of Ecuador—Provisional Allowance—Fleas, Cockroaches, &c.—[…]”, in Adventures by the Sea and Land: Being a Cruise in a Whale Boat, during a Year in the...
- Synonyms:
- insectile
Examples of insectual in a sentence
- Spirit of the Pities. / Yonder, that swarm of things insectual / Wheeling Nowhither in Particular— / What is it? / Spirit of the Years. / That?1912 October, Max Beerbohm, “A Sequelula to ‘The Dynasts’”, in A Christmas Garland Woven by Max Beerbohm, London: William Heinemann, page...
- Other times its horns proceed, slow yellow yearnings to live, they go eclipsed, delousing insectual nightmares dead to thunder, herald of genesis.2016 spring, Cesar Vallejo, translated by Alvaro Cardona-Hine, “Trilce”, in Malpaís Review, volume 6, number 4, Placitas, N.M., →ISSN...
- There is something insectual about the machine’s efforts, a formician predetermination that Michael finds soothing.2017, Christopher Gudgeon, “Still Life with Birds and Dust”, in The Encyclopedia of Lies: Stories, Vancouver, B.C.: Anvil Press, →ISBN...
- Sarah wished she could live like them, stick herself to a mate, to dance, an ooze of pollen and insectual fluids, then to split apart, deseaming, done.2017, Helen McClory, chapter 42, in Flesh of the Peach, Glasgow: Freight Books, →ISBN, page 102:
Synonyms of insectual
Forms of insectual
| comparative | more insectual |
|---|---|
| superlative | most insectual |
Origin of insectual
From insect + -ual.
Questions about insectual
- What does insectual mean?
- Insectual means of, relating to, or characteristic of an insect.
- How do you use insectual in a sentence?
- Spirit of the Pities. / Yonder, that swarm of things insectual / Wheeling Nowhither in Particular— / What is it? / Spirit of the Years. / That?
- What part of speech is insectual?
- Insectual is an adjective.
Words near insectual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: insectual (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: “insectual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/insectual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.