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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

limpet.

Any of various gastropods with a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot that they use to create strong suction to cling onto rocks or other hard surfaces.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlɪm.pɪt/
  1. Any of various gastropods with a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot that they use to create strong suction to cling onto rocks or other hard surfaces.

  2. Someone clingy or dependent; someone disregarding or ignorant of another's personal space.

    UK
    He stuck to me like a limpet all day!
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lempet, from Old English lempedu (“lamprey”), borrowed from Medieval Latin lampreda, alteration of Late Latin lampetra (“lamprey”), whose further origin is unknown, though is traditionally thought to derive from lambō (“to lick, lap”) + petra (“stone, rock”). Doublet of lamprey, which came through Old French.

verb/ˈlɪm.pɪt/
  1. To gather limpets.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English lempet, from Old English lempedu (“lamprey”), borrowed from Medieval Latin lampreda, alteration of Late Latin lampetra (“lamprey”), whose further origin is unknown, though is traditionally thought to derive from lambō (“to lick, lap”) + petra (“stone, rock”). Doublet of lamprey, which came through Old French.

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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.