insectivore
/ɪnˈsɛktəˌvɔɹ/noun
insectivore is a noun meaning “Insect-eating animal or plant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-N-S-E-C-T-I-V-O-R-E, and it appears about once in every 56 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of insectivore is insectivores.
What does insectivore mean?
noun
- 1
Insect-eating animal or plant.
An anteater is an insectivore with a long sticky tongue to catch its prey.
- 2
datedmammal of the now abandoned order Insectivora.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce insectivore?
- UK /ɪnˈsɛktəˌvɔː/
- US /ɪnˈsɛktəˌvɔɹ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-insectivore.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of insectivore
- insectivores plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is insectivore?
Insectivore appears about once in every 56 million words in written English, the 234,209th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Insectivore in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense insect-eating animal or plant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | insectivore |
| German | Insektenfresser, insektenfressende Pflanze, insekten fressende Pflanze, Insektivore |
| Portuguese | insectívoro, insetívoro |
| Spanish | insectívoro |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does insectivore come from?
From French insectivore. In the zoological sense, coined by English philosopher and historian of science William Whewell in 1840 as an adaptation of Cuvier's coinage, French insectivore. The French terms reflect scientific New Latin origins. By surface analysis, insect + -i- + -vore.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).