Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of numerous pale-colored, usually soft-bodied social insects of the order Isoptera that live mostly in warm regions. Many species of termites feed on wood, often destroying trees and wooden structures.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A white ant; any member of the Termitidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of pseudoneoropterous insects belonging to Termes and allied genera; -- called also white ant. See Illust. of white ant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A white bodied, wood-consuming insect of the epifamily Termitoidae, order Blattodea.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun whitish soft-bodied ant-like social insect that feeds on wood

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin Termes, genus name, from Late Latin termes, termit-, woodworm, alteration of Latin tarmes.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from termites. Possibly from Latin termites (three syllables), plural of termes.

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Examples

  • Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.

    duh pookie 2009

  • Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.

    duh pookie 2009

  • Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.

    duh pookie 2009

  • Energy efficient buildings inspired by passive cooling in termite mounds and non-toxic fabric finishes inspired by water repellant lotus plants are examples of biomimicry changing our world today.

    duh pookie 2009

  • Suddenly the termite is everywhere, from Popular Science to Congressional Quarterly Today to Wired.

    Gut Reactions 2008

  • Hugenholtz interrupted, quoting a colleague: “Maybe the termite is just a fancy delivery system for the creatures in the gut.”

    Gut Reactions 2008

  • Suddenly the termite is everywhere, from Popular Science to Congressional Quarterly Today to Wired.

    Gut Reactions 2008

  • Hugenholtz interrupted, quoting a colleague: “Maybe the termite is just a fancy delivery system for the creatures in the gut.”

    Gut Reactions 2008

  • Suddenly the termite is everywhere, from Popular Science to Congressional Quarterly Today to Wired.

    Gut Reactions 2008

  • He thinks that searching for individual enzymes in the termite will be a dead end, but that harnessing the power of whole environments might yield results.

    Gut Reactions 2008

Comments

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  • "Snooper earned her Beacon Termite Detection Canine Certificate by correctly alerting to fifty consecutive termite-infested sites. Her framed graduation certificate hangs in the office, a reassuring guarantee that, for $190, Snooper can locate wood-munching pests with an accuracy greater than ninety-eight percent.

    "Now, Snooper is an ace termite finder, better than any machine. In 1996, at a Pennsylvania entomology conference, a beagle took on the newest mechanical termite-divining device and a high-tech fiber-optic detector. The dog blew both machines away. The final termite-colony detection score: beagle, 12; machines, 2."

    —Merrily Weisbord and Kim Kachanoff, Dogs with Jobs: Working Dogs Around the World (NY and London: Pocket Books, 2000), 63

    July 25, 2009