stinger
UK/ˈstɪŋ.ə(ɹ)/US/ˈstɪŋ.ɚ/
stinger noun: a pointed portion of an insect or arachnid used for attack.
Noun (1)
stinger (plural stingers)
- A pointed portion of an insect or arachnid used for attack.
- Synonyms:
- sting
- Anything that is used to sting, as a means of attack.
- The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to say: "Why this thing has a stinger! I must be careful." And then it reached out its long neck and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed for me; but I wasn't there.1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
- Anything, such as an insult, that stings mentally or psychologically.
- A cocktail of brandy and crème de menthe.
- A portable bed of nails to puncture car tires, used by police and military forces.
- Synonyms:
- spike strip
- A minor neurological injury of the spine characterized by a shooting or stinging pain down one arm, followed by numbness and weakness.
- A station identifier on television or radio played between shows.
- A scene shown on films or television shows after the credits.
- A nonlethal grenade using rubber instead of shrapnel, more commonly called a sting grenade.
- A short musical phrase or chord used non-diegetically to dramatic or emphatic effect.
- The most commonly used tool in the horror score kit is the “sting” — a quick and loud jolt of sound that coincides with a frightening image or the attack of a killer or creature. “Stingers are a form of music that are unique to movies,” Young adds. “There’s no other venue of musicmaking that has a...2007 November 15, Jeff Bond, “Composing scary sounds not for the faint of heart”, in The Hollywood Reporter
- A final note played at the end of a military march.
- An extension cord.
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- A stinging nettle.
- Chironex fleckeri, an extremely venomous Australian box jellyfish.
- An improvised heating element used to boil or heat water in prison.
Noun (2) capitalized: Stinger
Stinger (plural Stingers)
- The FIM-92 portable infra-red homing surface-to-air missile.
stinger meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Tagalog and Persian
stinger in Tamil
- கடுநோவூட்டுபவர், படைப்பிரிவு
stinger in Bengali
- হুল, দংশক অঙ্গ
stinger in Tagalog
- pointed portion of an insect
- asir
stinger in Persian
- pointed portion of an insect
- نیش niš
More languagesFewer languages
- stinger in Thai
- เหล็กใน lèk-nai
- stinger in Vietnamese
- ngòi
Synonyms of stinger
Forms of stinger
| plural | stingers |
|---|---|
| plural | Stingers |
Origin of stinger
From sting + -er. Both figurative and literal senses appeared in the 16th century.
Words formed from stinger
Phrases with stinger
Words that rhyme with stinger
Questions about stinger
- What does stinger mean?
- Stinger means a pointed portion of an insect or arachnid used for attack.
- What is stinger in Tamil?
- Stinger in Tamil is கடுநோவூட்டுபவர், படைப்பிரிவு. See Stinger meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is stinger?
- Stinger is a noun.
- How do you pronounce stinger?
- Stinger is pronounced /ˈstɪŋ.ə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the plural of stinger?
- The plural of stinger is stingers.
Words near stinger in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stinger (page history and authors); Stinger (page history and authors); stinger (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stinger (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: En-au-stinger.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stinger.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stinger. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.