Word.ws English Dictionary

weta

UK/ˈwɛtə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ˈweːtʌː/

weta noun: any of about 70 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae, endemic to New Zealand, resembling katydids or crickets.

Noun

weta (plural weta or wetas)

  1. (New Zealand) Any of about 70 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae, endemic to New Zealand, resembling katydids or crickets.
    • We came to know by heart […] her excitement on her first day at school at seeing a weta crawling on brother Willy's knee (‘Oooh, look on Willy's knee!’) […].1982, Janet Frame, An Angel at my Table, Virago, published 2024, page 5
    • It also carried […] the forebears of wētā insects and the worm-caterpillar peripatus.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 10

Forms of weta

pluralweta
pluralwetas

Plural of weta: weta or wetas

Origin of weta

Borrowed from Māori wētā.

Words formed from weta

Questions about weta

What does weta mean?
Weta means any of about 70 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae, endemic to New Zealand, resembling katydids or crickets.
What part of speech is weta?
Weta is a noun.
How do you pronounce weta?
Weta is pronounced /ˈwɛtə/ (UK).
What is the plural of weta?
The plural of weta is weta.

Words near weta in the dictionary

  1. wet-weather
  2. wet-weather tire
  3. wet-weather tires
  4. wet-weather tyre
  5. wet-weather tyres
  6. weta
  7. wetas
  8. Wetaskiwin
  9. wetawd
  10. wetawds
  11. wetback

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: weta (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:

Cite this entry: “weta.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/weta. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.