locust

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

lohkuhst

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈloʊkəst

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

Any of various often leguminous trees and shrubs, especially of the genera Robinia and Gleditsia; locust tree.
Hardwood from any of various locust trees
A cicada.

verb

intransitive
To come in a swarm.

Word at a Glance

Frequency: Uncommon
Formality: Technical

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Various / hardwood

locust bean

Grasshoppers / migratory

migratory locust

Other combinations

honey locustdesert locustlocust treelocust grovelocust valleylocust control

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

locust podnounCompound term
Long pod containing small beans and sweetish edible pulp.
locust treenounCompound term
Any of various hardwood trees of the family Leguminosae.
locust beannounCompound term
Long pod containing small beans and sweetish edible pulp.
clammy locustnounCompound term
Small rough-barked locust of southeastern United States having racemes of pink flowers and glutinous branches and seeds.
honey locustnounCompound term
Tall usually spiny North American tree having small greenish-white flowers in drooping racemes followed by long twisting seed pods.
migratory locustnounCompound term
Old World locust that travels in vast swarms stripping large areas of vegetation.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

locusta migratorianounRelated term
Old World locust that travels in vast swarms stripping large areas of vegetation.
family locustidaenounRelated term
Short-horned grasshoppers.

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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.