woolly bear
noun
Simple meaning
Caterpillar of many moths having a dense coat of woolly hairs.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wuuleebehrSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwʊliˈbɛɹ
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
colloquial
Caterpillar of numerous moths characterized by a dense coat of woolly hairs; feed on plants and some are destructive pests
The larva of a moth of the family Arctiidae.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Caterpillar of numerous moths characterized by a dense coat of woolly hairs; feed on plants and some are destructive pests
Used this way, woolly bear is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Casual
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Playful
- Usage feel
- Casual and conversational
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “woolly bear” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.