a mythical goddess represented as a young girl and said to live outdoors
in Greek mythology, naiads supposedly drowned the young men with whom they became enamored
a young wingless often wormlike form (as a grub or caterpillar) that hatches from the egg of many insects
students in science class learning how to distinguish a dragonfly naiad from an earthworm
Deer ticks, for example, can range from the size of a pinhead as larvae to a poppy seed in the nymph stage, to a sesame seed as adults.
—
Amanda Roome,
The Conversation,
16 July 2026
Even the idyllic island on which the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron) is keeping an amnesiac Odysseus when the film begins is depicted as a windswept sandbar that looks in danger of being washed away by a strong-enough storm.
In a paper published this month in PLOS One, Alaei and her colleagues propose an alternative - employing a suite of superworms, a kind of hefty beetle larva that can capably pick a variety of animal skeletons clean.
—
Ari Daniel,
NPR,
17 July 2026
Fireflies go through four life stages – egg, larva, pupa and adult – in a process called complete metamorphosis.
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Copy Citation
