Word.ws English Dictionary

pharate

pharate adjective: in the final stages of conversion from pupa to adult, e.g. waiting to emerge from a cocoon, or escaping from an aquatic pupal stage to terrestrial adulthood.

Adjective

pharate (comparative more pharate, superlative most pharate)

  1. In the final stages of conversion from pupa to adult, e.g. waiting to emerge from a cocoon, or escaping from an aquatic pupal stage to terrestrial adulthood.
    • Each new instar or stage of an arthropod begins enclosed within the cuticle of the previous instar or stage. That part of it that is spent enveloped by the cuticle of the previous instar or stage is known as the pharate phase or stage, or simply as the pharate larva, pupa, or adult, as the case may...1968 Hinton, H. E. Spiracular Gills, Advances in Insect Physiology Vol. 5 Academic Press
    • Many Trichoptera swim to the surface as pharate adults, the middle legs of the pupae of these species being fringed to facilitate swimming, and the insect may continue to swim at the surface until it finds a suitable object to crawl out on.2013, R. F. Chapman, The Insects: Structure and Function, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 435
  2. (especially an insect) In transition between major stages of development, e.g. from pupa to imago.
    • 1981Thomson, John A. Speculations on the evolution of the insect storage proteins. Evolution and Speciation. →ISBN
      Where the fat body cells are not replaced at metamorphosis, the larval storage proteins are withdrawn during pharate adult development, the protein granules become smaller and less...

Forms of pharate

comparativemore pharate
superlativemost pharate

Origin of pharate

From Ancient Greek φᾶρος (phâros, “mantle, cloth, web”) + -ate (verb-forming suffix), suggesting the process of being about to shed the old skin.

Questions about pharate

What does pharate mean?
Pharate means in the final stages of conversion from pupa to adult, e.g. waiting to emerge from a cocoon, or escaping from an aquatic pupal stage to terrestrial adulthood.
What part of speech is pharate?
Pharate is an adjective.

Words near pharate in the dictionary

  1. Pharaonism
  2. Pharaonist
  3. Pharaonists
  4. pharaons
  5. pharaos
  6. pharate
  7. pharbitin
  8. pharbitins
  9. pharbitisin
  10. pharbitisins
  11. phare

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pharate (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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