Arista

//əˈɹɪstə// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One of the fibrils found on grains or fishes.

    "A very distinct species. Habit of Brachystephium scapigerum D. C.: but that ought to have no aristae to the achenium: here the awns are very stout in proportion to the size of the capitulum."

  2. 2
    bristlelike process near the tip of the antenna of certain flies wordnet
  3. 3
    A bristle on the third segment of a fly's antenna.

    "The eyes of the male are separated by a distance equal to one-fourth of the diameter of the head, in the female by one-third. The frontal stripe is black, the cheeks and margins of the orbits silvery-white. The antennæ are black, the arista feathered on the upper side only."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Example

More examples

"A very distinct species. Habit of Brachystephium scapigerum D. C.: but that ought to have no aristae to the achenium: here the awns are very stout in proportion to the size of the capitulum."

Etymology

From New Latin arista. Doublet of arête.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.