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firefly.

Any beetle of the family Lampyridae, which exhibit bioluminescence during twilight.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfaɪ.əˌflaɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfaɪ.ɚˌflaɪ/General-American
  1. Any beetle of the family Lampyridae, which exhibit bioluminescence during twilight.

    Florida · Northern-US · US · Western
Where this word comes from

Endocentric compound of fire + fly, because the insects glow; whence also lightning bug. Compare glow fly, glowworm, and lanternfly. Compare typologically Ancient Greek λαμπυρίς (lampurís, “glowworm”) (<+ πῦρ (pûr)).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.