wood louse
noun
: a terrestrial isopod crustacean (suborder Oniscoidea) with a flattened elliptical body often capable of being rolled into a ball
called also pill bug, sow bug
Examples of wood louse in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Bunky would probably have loved to eat a wood louse.
—
Anne Fadiman, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
In the case of one particular 429-million-year-old trilobite—an extinct arthropod that looked like a big version of a wood louse—a crack in just the right place has allowed paleontologists to see the world through the creature’s eyes.
—Riley Black, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2020
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Anne Fadiman, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
In the case of one particular 429-million-year-old trilobite—an extinct arthropod that looked like a big version of a wood louse—a crack in just the right place has allowed paleontologists to see the world through the creature’s eyes.
—Riley Black, Scientific American, 13 Aug. 2020
Cite this Entry
“Wood louse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wood%20louse. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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