Word.ws English Dictionary

kissing bug

kissing bug noun: any of a number of haematophagous bugs belonging to the subfamily Triatominae that feed on the blood of vertebrates, including humans, and which are known for spreading Chagas' disease.

Noun

kissing bug (plural kissing bugs)

  1. Any of a number of haematophagous bugs belonging to the subfamily Triatominae that feed on the blood of vertebrates, including humans, and which are known for spreading Chagas' disease.

Synonyms of kissing bug

Forms of kissing bug

pluralkissing bugs

Origin of kissing bug

From kissing + bug: they often feed on the lips of human victims.

Questions about kissing bug

What does kissing bug mean?
Kissing bug means any of a number of haematophagous bugs belonging to the subfamily Triatominae that feed on the blood of vertebrates, including humans, and which are known for spreading Chagas' disease.
What part of speech is kissing bug?
Kissing bug is a noun.
What is the plural of kissing bug?
The plural of kissing bug is kissing bugs.

Words near kissing bug in the dictionary

  1. kissing ball
  2. kissing balls
  3. kissing booth
  4. kissing booths
  5. kissing bridge
  6. kissing bug
  7. kissing bugs
  8. kissing comfit
  9. kissing comfits
  10. kissing cousin
  11. kissing cousins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kissing bug (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: “kissing bug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kissing_bug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.