What does "drosophila" mean?

Any fruit fly of the genus Drosophila

What is a synonym for "drosophila"?

Common synonyms include: drosophila melanogaster, insect.

Pronounced //dɹoʊˈsɑfələ//.

//dɹoʊˈsɑfələ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any fruit fly of the genus Drosophila
"In contrast, the drosophilas of Hawaii owe their oddity entirely to the whims of natural selection."
2
small fruit fly used by Thomas Hunt Morgan in studying basic mechanisms of inheritance wordnet

"In contrast, the drosophilas of Hawaii owe their oddity entirely to the whims of natural selection."

From taxonomic name Drosophila.

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