termite

noun

ter·​mite ˈtər-ˌmīt 

: any of numerous pale-colored soft-bodied social insects (order Isoptera) that live in colonies consisting usually of winged sexual forms, wingless sterile workers, and soldiers, feed on wood, and include some which are very destructive to wooden structures and trees

called also white ant

Examples of termite in a Sentence

The house has a lot of termite damage.

Recent Examples on the Web

The animals are most famously known for their ability to use twigs stripped of leaves to fish into small openings in logs and extract termites as food. —Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 5 June 2024

Overgrown vegetation can serve as a bridge for termites to enter your house. —Sponsored Content, The Mercury News, 21 May 2024

On a walk through the jungle, the dive-bombing mosquitoes become almost unbearable (an unpleasant side effect of the rainy season), so Aguilar pokes open a termite nest and encourages the members of our small group to rub the tiny insects on our skin to ward them off. —Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 July 2023

There’s a saying that cyber-operations lead to death by a thousand cuts, but perhaps a better analogy is termites, hidden in the recesses of foundations, that gradually eat away at the very structures designed to support people’s lives. —Jacquelyn Schneider, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2021

Word History

Etymology

New Latin Termit-, Termes, genus of termites, from Late Latin, a worm that eats wood, alteration of Latin tarmit-, tarmes; akin to Greek tetrainein to bore — more at throw entry 1

First Known Use

1781, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing termite

• Formosan termite

Kids Definition

termite

noun

ter·​mite ˈtər-ˌmīt 

: any of a group of pale-colored soft-bodied social insects that feed on wood, live in colonies consisting of winged sexual forms, wingless sterile workers, and often soldiers, and that include some very destructive to wooden structures and trees

called also white ant