Odonate

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any carnivorous insect of the order Odonata; a dragonfly or damselfly.

    "The proportion of these prey that were odonates can be estimated from the food sample data taken at the Potholes (Chapter Four; Orians and Horn, 1969)."

  2. 2
    large primitive predatory aquatic insect having two pairs of membranous wings wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dragonflydragonflysewing needlesewing needle

Example

More examples

"The proportion of these prey that were odonates can be estimated from the food sample data taken at the Potholes (Chapter Four; Orians and Horn, 1969)."

Etymology

From translingual Odonata, from Ancient Greek ὀδούς (odoús, “tooth”), apparently because they have teeth on their mandibles, although most insects have toothed mandibles.

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