sandfly
noun
sandfly is a noun meaning “Any of various small flies of the genera Lutzomyia and Phlebotomus whose females suck the blood of vertebrates and thus spread leishmaniasis” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled S-A-N-D-F-L-Y, and it appears about once in every 41 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of sandfly is sandflies.
What does sandfly mean?
noun
- 1
Any of various small flies of the genera Lutzomyia and Phlebotomus whose females suck the blood of vertebrates and thus spread leishmaniasis.
- 2
A small fly of the genus Austrosimulium.
- 3
USA biting midge (family Ceratopogonidae).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of sandfly
- sandflies plural
- sand fly
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is sandfly?
Sandfly appears about once in every 41 million words in written English, the 196,618th 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).
Sandfly in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense fly of Lutzomyia or Phlebotomus:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | phlébotome |
| German | Sandfliege |
| Spanish | mosquito simúlido, jején |
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 sandfly come from?
From sand + fly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).