cicada

UK/sɪˈkeɪ.də/US/sɪˈkeɪ.də/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,363 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: cicadas

A cicada is an insect whose loud buzzing fills hot summer evenings. The cicadas started, a cicada shell, deafening cicadas.

The sound is made by a pair of ribbed membranes clicking in and out, not by rubbing, and it can reach a hundred decibels. Some American broods spend seventeen years underground and emerge all at once.

Definitions of cicada

1nouncicadaAn insect whose loud buzzing fills hot summer evenings.B2+
“The cicadas were so loud in the olive trees that we could barely hear each other.”

cicada is an insect.

Where it comes from

Latin cicada names the insect and imitates its sound.

Latin
cicāda
English, today
cicada

Borrowed from Latin cicāda. Borrowed from Latin cicāda, ultimately imitative of the sound. a doublet of cicala.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Insects & Sea Life

Practise this word

cicada in the wild

The annual cicadas are species that emerge every year.
Cicada
The cicada is also mentioned in Hesiod's Shield, in which it is said to sing when millet first ripens.
Cicada
The term periodical cicada is commonly used to refer to any of the seven species of the genus Magicicada of eastern North America, the 13- and 17-year cicadas.
Periodical cicadas
Within two months of the original emergence, the life cycle is complete and the adult cicadas die.
Periodical cicadas
Sphecius speciosus, the eastern cicada-killer wasp, is a large, solitary digger wasp species in the family Bembicidae.
Sphecius speciosus

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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