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ladybug

UK/ˈleɪ.di.bʌɡ/US/ˈleɪ.di.bʌɡ/
nounA2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,323 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: ladybugs

A ladybug is a small round red insect with black dots. Count the spots on a ladybug, a ladybug landed, ladybugs in the garden.

Britain says ladybird for the same insect. Gardeners welcome it because it eats aphids by the hundred. The lady in the name is the Virgin Mary, and the same reference appears in the German, Danish and several other names for the beetle.

Francisco Welter-Schultes · CC0

Definitions of ladybug

  1. 1nounladybugA small round red insect with black dots.A2+

    “A little ladybug landed on my hand and crawled along my finger.”

ladybug is an insect.

Also accepted in games: ladybird

Where it comes from

Lady plus bug, the lady being the Virgin Mary. The same reference appears in several European languages.

From lady + bug, the “lady” here referring to Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Compare German Marienkäfer, Danish mariehøne, Latvian mārīte, Macedonian бубамара and Spanish mariquita.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Animals

Practise this word

ladybug in the wild

  • A widespread misconception exists that this species is not a ladybug due to confusion over common names.

    Harmonia axyridis

  • As the holder of a Miraculous, Marinette is assisted by a small red creature resembling a ladybug called Tikki, who is a magical being known as a kwami.

    Marinette Dupain-Cheng

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.