Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Biology Having a stinger, as a bee or wasp.
- adj. Botany Having sharp prickles.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In zoology, furnished with a sting; pertaining to or characteristic of the Aculeata.
- In botany, furnished with aculei or sharp prickles; aculeous.
- Figuratively, pointed; stinging.
- n. A hymenopterous insect, one of the Aculeata.
- To make pointed; sharpen.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having a sting; sharp like a prickle.
- adj. Having prickles or sharp points.
- adj. Having a stinger; stinging.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having a sting; covered with prickles; sharp like a prickle.
- adj. Having prickles, or sharp points; beset with prickles.
- adj. Severe or stinging; incisive.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or resembling a stinger or barb
Etymologies
- Latin acūleātus, from acūleus, sting, diminutive of acus, needle; see acumen.
Examples
“He points out that all of the branches or groups technically called clades known to have primitively eusocial species—aculeate wasps, halictine and xylocopine bees, sponge-nesting shrimp, termopsid termites, colonial aphids and thrips, ambrosia beetles, and naked mole rats—rely on colonies that build and occupy defensible nests.”
“The evolutionary origin and elaboration of sociality in the aculeate Hymenoptera: Maternal effects, sib-social effects, and heterochrony.”
“Dispersed in the grasslands are trees of Crecentia cujete, Ceiba pentandra, Lecythis minor, Ochroma pyramidale, Prosopis juliflora, Cavanillesia platanifolia and palms trees of Sabal mauritiiformis, Acrocomia aculeate, Attalea butyracea and several Bactris spp.”
“Of these plants, 5 out of 6 species globally threatened are not found in Nanda Devi National Park or elsewhere in Uttaranchal: Aconitum falconeri, A. balfouri, Himalayan maple Acer caesium, the blue Himalayan poppy Mecanopsis aculeate and Saussurea atkinsoni. 31 species are classified as nationally rare.”
“The fauna of the Succulent Karoo has a rich complement of endemics, especially among the arachnids, hopliniid beetles, aculeate Hymenoptera, and reptiles.”
“The one, of extreme bitterness of words, especially if they be aculeate and proper; for cummunia maledicta are nothing so much; and again, that in anger a man reveal no secrets; for that, makes him not fit for society.”
“Some polychaetes such as the sea mouse Aphrodite aculeate also bear a ventral muscular, creeping sole; myzostomids have a circular body with fused parapodia, which also forms a ventral foot like structure.”
“The various other families of aculeate _Hymenoptera_ are doubtless more abundant than the species recorded indicate, and it may be safely reckoned that the parasitic _Hymenoptera_ in Ceylon far exceed one thousand species in number, though they are yet only known by means of about two dozen kinds collected at Kandy by Mr. Thwaites.”
“His defection aggrieved her so bitterly, that the fiercest of her wrath turned upon him; and after a wrangle wherein all the parties concerned had made liberal use of those "aculeate and proper" words against which the wary Bacon warns his quarrelling readers, she flounced away into the darkness of the small hours of the stormy December morning, loudly avowing her determination never to see a sight of the ugly, dirty, mane-spirited poltroon, or open her lips to him as long as she had an eye or a tongue in her head.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘aculeate’.
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Ponderable Zoological Names
Wordplay and humor abound in the names and naming of organisms. I believe this sort of play is a distinctly human quality.
Herein I list playful names of organisms that inspire delight...Bambiraptor, Godzillius, Dalailama, Ia io, Cartwrightia cart..., Mops mops, Dives dives dives, Lactarius nonfungus, Lactarius nonpiscis, Achelousaurus hor..., Vini vidivici, Panama canalia and 992 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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acu-, acul-
sharp

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