Ant (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

noun
  1. any of numerous black, red, brown, or yellow social insects of the family Formicidae, of worldwide distribution especially in warm climates, having a large head with inner jaws for chewing and outer jaws for carrying and digging, and living in highly organized colonies containing wingless female workers, a winged queen, and, during breeding seasons, winged males, some species being noted for engaging in warfare, slavemaking, or the cultivation of food sources.
Idioms
  1. to be impatient or eager to act or speak.
  1. contraction of am not.
  2. ain't.
  1. variant of anti- before a vowel or h:antacid; anthelmintic.
  1. a suffix forming adjectives and nouns from verbs, occurring originally in French and Latin loanwords (pleasant; constant; servant) and productive in English on this model; -ant has the general sense “characterized by or serving in the capacity of” that named by the stem (ascendant; pretendant), especially in the formation of nouns denoting human agents in legal actions or other formal procedures (tenant; defendant; applicant; contestant). In technical and commercial coinages, -ant is a suffix of nouns denoting impersonal physical agents (propellant; lubricant; deodorant). In general, -ant can be added only to bases of Latin origin, with a very few exceptions, as coolant.
abbreviation
  1. antenna
  2. antonym.
abbreviation
  1. Antarctica.
noun
  1. any small social insect of the widely distributed hymenopterous family Formicidae, typically living in highly organized colonies of winged males, wingless sterile females (workers), and fertile females (queens), which are winged until after mating
  2. white ant another name for a termite
  3. to be restless or impatient
contraction of mainly British
  1. (ɑːnt) a rare variant spelling of aren't
  2. (eɪnt) dialect a variant spelling of ain't
prefix
  1. a variant of anti- antacid
suffix forming adjectives, suffix forming nouns
  1. causing or performing an action or existing in a certain condition; the agent that performs an action
Ant (noun) Definition, Meaning & Examples

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