What does "ladybird" mean?

Any of the Coccinellidae family of beetles, typically having a round shape and red or yellow spotted elytra.

What is a synonym for "ladybird"?

Common synonyms include: lady beetle, ladybug, bishy barnabee, coccinellid, insect, lady fly.

Ladybird

//ˈleɪ.di.bɝd// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any of the Coccinellidae family of beetles, typically having a round shape and red or yellow spotted elytra.
"1914, Entomological Society of America, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 7, page 81, During this time, they eat about 825 Toxoptera per ladybird, making an average of about twenty-five per day to each ladybird."
2
small round bright-colored and spotted beetle that usually feeds on aphids and other insect pests wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

lady beetle ladybug bishy barnabee coccinellid insect lady fly

Example

More examples

"The two-spotted ladybird is very rare."

Etymology

From lady + bird, the “lady” here referring to the Virgin Mary, Jesus’ mother. Compare German Marienkäfer (literally “Mary beetle/bug”), Danish mariehøne, Latvian mārīte, Macedonian бубамара (bubamara) and Spanish mariquita. Also compare damselfly.

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