instar
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An insect or other arthropod between molts.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
instahrIPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnstɑɹ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An insect or other arthropod between molts
Any one of the several stages of postembryonic development which an arthropod undergoes, between molts, before it reaches sexual maturity.
An arthropod at a specified one of these stages of development.
by extension
A stage in development.
verb
transitive
To make a star of; set as a star.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An insect or other arthropod between molts
Used this way, instar is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.