mayfly
mayfly noun: any of the many fragile insects of the order Ephemeroptera that develop in fresh water and live very briefly as winged adults.
Noun
mayfly (plural mayflies or mayfly)
- Any of the many fragile insects of the order Ephemeroptera that develop in fresh water and live very briefly as winged adults.
- While some animals take months to reproduce, mayfly need just one perfect day.
- [A] silver fish clooped a lazy arc downstream, not really caring that the mayfly were out of reach; […]1986, Mary Brown, “The Gathering: One; The Unicorn and the Prince”, in The Unlikely Ones (Pigs Don’t Fly; 1), London: Century, →ISBN, page 5
- Synonyms:
- dayfly, drake, drakefly, ephemera, ephemerid, fishfly, shadfly, upwing fly, upwinged fly
- Characterized by a short duration; short-lived.
- Dipping a French fry in her tomato ketchup, she admits that her name recognition could be higher. But it did spike a year ago during the mayfly premiership of Liz Truss.2023 October 7, Jim Pickard, “It’s not government that creates jobs”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3
mayfly meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
mayfly in Tamil
- insect of order Ephemeroptera
- மேஃபிளை mēfiḷai
mayfly in Urdu
- insect of order Ephemeroptera
- مَئی مَکّھی maī makkhī
mayfly in Bengali
- insect of order Ephemeroptera
- মাছমাছি machmachi
mayfly in Malayalam
- insect of order Ephemeroptera
- മെയ് ഫ്ലൈ meyŭ phlai
More languagesFewer languages
- mayfly in Arabic
- ذُبَابَة مَايُو, ذُبَاب مَايُو ḏubāb māyū
- mayfly in Persian
- یکروزه yek-ruze
- mayfly in Thai
- แมลงชีปะขาว má-lɛɛng-chii-bpà-kǎao, ชีปะขาว chii-bpà-kǎao
- mayfly in Vietnamese
- thiêu thân, phù du
Examples of mayfly in a sentence
- Obviously if you see a grasser eat something–a bee, wasp, or mayfly–go that way fast!
- These so-called glowworms display a bright blue-green light that attracts prey such as midges, mayflies, and caddisflies.
- Many years the mayfly hatch begins by the time the lake opens in April.
Synonyms of mayfly
Forms of mayfly
| plural | mayflies |
|---|---|
| plural | mayfly |
Origin of mayfly
From May (“fifth month”) + fly (“flying insect”). Compare Saterland Frisian Moaifljooge (“blowfly”).
Questions about mayfly
- What does mayfly mean?
- Mayfly means any of the many fragile insects of the order Ephemeroptera that develop in fresh water and live very briefly as winged adults.
- What is mayfly in Tamil?
- Mayfly in Tamil is மேஃபிளை (mēfiḷai). See Mayfly meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is mayfly?
- Mayfly is a noun.
- What is the plural of mayfly?
- The plural of mayfly is mayflies.
Words near mayfly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mayfly (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mayfly.wav.
Cite this entry: “mayfly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mayfly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.