termite

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a pale, soft-bodied social insect that lives in a colony and feeds chiefly on wood or other cellulose-rich material

   The termites built a tall mound above their underground colony.

The English singular was inferred from termites, used as a plural from Latin termes, 'woodworm.' Modern zoology places termites within the cockroach order Blattodea, traditionally as the group Isoptera.

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