Definitions

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

  • noun Any of numerous insects of the order Orthoptera, having mouthparts that are adapted for chewing, usually two pairs of wings with thickened front wings and folded hind wings, and often enlarged hind legs. Orthopterans include the grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as orthopterous.
  • noun An insect of the order Orthoptera.

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

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the Orthoptera.

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

  • noun zoology Any of many insects of the order Orthoptera

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

  • noun any of various insects having leathery forewings and membranous hind wings and chewing mouthparts

Etymologies

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

[From New Latin Orthoptera, order name : Greek ortho-, ortho- + Greek ptera, neuter pl. of pteron, wing; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Its presence is both a revelation and a joy, since the song, a long soft drawn-out reeling buzz, is one of the most resonant of all orthopteran melodies.

    Country diary 2010

  • Cricket Crawl NYC, an amateur-science event held Saturday night to enlist area residents a la crowd-sourcing to collectively document the distribution of seven orthopteran species throughout the metropolitan area.

    Scientific American 2009

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