Word.ws English Dictionary

sphecoid

sphecoid adjective: of or pertaining to wasps formerly classified in the superfamily Sphecoidea (corresponding to all wasps in Apoidea), now sometimes treated as the series Spheciformes.

Adjective

sphecoid (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to wasps formerly classified in the superfamily Sphecoidea (corresponding to all wasps in Apoidea), now sometimes treated as the series Spheciformes.
    • On morphological grounds they fall closest to the sphecoid wasps, although the lack of an adequate fossil record has made it impossible to pinpoint the exact ancestral phyletic line. In a word, the Apoidea can be loosely characterized as sphecoid wasps that have specialized on collecting pollen...1975, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published 2000, page 428
    • The literature pertaining to sphecoid wasps in Quebec may be divided into four broad categories: species surveys, biological studies, taxonomic studies and reference works.1982, Albert T. Finnamore, The Sphecoidea of Southern Quebec (Hymenoptera), page 3

Examples of sphecoid in a sentence

  • On morphological grounds they fall closest to the sphecoid wasps, although the lack of an adequate fossil record has made it impossible to pinpoint the exact ancestral phyletic line.1975, Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, published 2000, page 428:
  • Bees are similar to one group of wasps, the sphecoid wasps, but are quite unlike other Aculeata.2000, Charles Duncan Michener, The Bees of the World, volume 1, page 2:

Origin of sphecoid

From translingual Sphecidae (“taxonomic family of wasps”), from Ancient Greek σφήξ (sphḗx, “wasp”).

Questions about sphecoid

What does sphecoid mean?
Sphecoid means of or pertaining to wasps formerly classified in the superfamily Sphecoidea (corresponding to all wasps in Apoidea), now sometimes treated as the series Spheciformes.
How do you use sphecoid in a sentence?
On morphological grounds they fall closest to the sphecoid wasps, although the lack of an adequate fossil record has made it impossible to pinpoint the exact ancestral phyletic line.
What part of speech is sphecoid?
Sphecoid is an adjective.

Words near sphecoid in the dictionary

  1. spheare
  2. spheares
  3. sphears
  4. sphecid
  5. sphecids
  6. sphecoid
  7. spheges
  8. spheksophobia
  9. sphen-
  10. sphenacodont
  11. sphenacodontian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sphecoid (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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