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periodical cicadas

periodical cicadas is the plural of periodical cicada.

Meaning of periodical cicada

Noun

periodical cicada (plural periodical cicadas)

  1. Any of certain species of cicadas, especially in genus Magicicada, which are known for their 17- and 13-year life-cycles, during most of which they develop underground, emerging in large numbers for a short time as large and audible adults, all those emerging in a year constituting a brood.
    • An emergence is when a throng of periodical cicadas rises from the ground as soon as the soil reaches about 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The groups of magicicadas, known as broods, surface only once every 13 or 17 years depending on the species.2013 May 3, Megan Buerger, “Bugged by Cicada Swarm? Don't Be”, in Wall Street Journal

Questions about periodical cicadas

What is periodical cicadas the plural of?
Periodical cicadas is the plural of periodical cicada.

Words near periodical cicadas in the dictionary

  1. periodic structures
  2. periodic table
  3. periodic tables
  4. periodical
  5. periodical cicada
  6. periodical cicadas
  7. periodical comet
  8. periodical comets
  9. periodicalist
  10. periodicalists
  11. periodicalize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: periodical cicadas (page history and authors); periodical cicada (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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