What does "mayfly" mean?

Any of the many fragile insects of the order Ephemeroptera that develop in fresh water and live very briefly as winged adults.

What is a synonym for "mayfly"?

Common synonyms include: dayfly, shadfly, bubble, drake, drakefly, ephemera.

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
Any of the many fragile insects of the order Ephemeroptera that develop in fresh water and live very briefly as winged adults.
"While some animals take months to reproduce, mayfly need just one perfect day."
2
slender insect with delicate membranous wings having an aquatic larval stage and terrestrial adult stage usually lasting less than two days wordnet
3
Characterized by a short duration; short-lived. attributive, figuratively
"Dipping a French fry in her tomato ketchup, she admits that her name recognition could be higher. But it did spike a year ago during the mayfly premiership of Liz Truss."

""We shouldn't have to wait too much time with the honeymoon, darling", said the mayfly."

From May + fly. Compare Saterland Frisian Moaifljooge (“blowfly”).

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