Mosquitos are small flying insects which bite people and animals in order to suck their blood.
mosquito in British English
(məˈskiːtəʊ)
nounWord forms: plural-toes or -tos
any dipterous insect of the family Culicidae: the females have a long proboscis adapted for piercing the skin of humans and animals to suck their blood
See also aedes, anopheles, culex
Word origin
C16: from Spanish, diminutive of mosca fly, from Latin musca
mosquito in American English
(məˈskitoʊ)
nounWord forms: pluralmosˈquitoes or mosˈquitos
any of a large family (Culicidae) of two-winged dipteran insects, the females ofwhich have skin-piercing mouthparts used to extract blood from animals, including humans: some varieties are carriers of certain diseases, as malaria and yellow fever
Derived forms
mosquitoey (mosˈquitoey) (məˈskitoʊi)
adjective
Word origin
Sp & Port, dim. of mosca < L musca, a fly: see midge