flea

A2 Topic:Animals

US /fliː/ See IPA manual

Homophones

flee /fliː/

Minimal pairs

Sounds like free /l/ vs /r/

Freq #11003

Meanings

1

noun
A tiny jumping insect that bites animals and people and feeds on their blood.

The dog kept scratching because of fleas.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms fleas

Derived forms antifleabefleadefleaflea-bagflea-bittenflea-brainedflea-louseflea-powderflea-riddenfleabagfleabanefleabite

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

water flea
a tiny freshwater crustacean named for swimming movements that resemble a flea's jumps

Noun + noun

Proverbs (2)

See all

Etymology

From Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin to Proto-Indo-European *plúsis (compare Latin pulex, Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi)). The archaic plural fleen is from Middle English fleen, flen, from Old English flēan (“fleas”).

fle Middle English flēah Old English *flauh Proto-West Germanic *flauhaz Proto-Germanic *plúsis Proto-Indo-European fleen Middle English flēan Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# flea

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /fliː/
**Frequency rank:** 11003

## Meanings
1. A tiny jumping insect that bites animals and people and feeds on their blood.

## Examples
- The dog kept scratching because of fleas.

## Derived Forms
- antiflea
- beflea
- deflea
- flea-bag
- flea-bitten
- flea-brained
- flea-louse
- flea-powder
- flea-ridden
- fleabag
- fleabane
- fleabite

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: fle
- Root: flēah
- Root: *flauh
- Root: *flauhaz
- Root: *plúsis
- Root: fleen
- Root: flēan

## Etymology
From Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin to Proto-Indo-European *plúsis (compare Latin pulex, Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi)). The archaic plural fleen is from Middle English fleen, flen, from Old English flēan (“fleas”).

## AI Etymology
Flea comes from Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin to Proto-Indo-European *plúsis (compare Latin pulex, Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi)). The archaic plural fleen is from Middle English fleen, flen, from Old English flēan (“fleas”). In current use, the main sense is “A tiny jumping insect that bites animals and people and feeds on their blood”.

## Topics
- Animals

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