Standard Lemma guide

blowfly

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈbloʊˌflaɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of various flies of the family Calliphoridae that lay their eggs in rotting meat, dung, or open wounds.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

large usually hairy metallic blue or green fly; lays eggs in carrion or dung or wounds

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: blow fly

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: fly

Narrower terms: bluebottle, Calliphora vicina, greenbottle, greenbottle fly

History

Etymology

From blow (“to infest with maggots by depositing eggs upon flesh”) + fly.

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bislama: bluflae — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Bulgarian: муха месарка (muha mesarka) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Chinese Mandarin: 麗蠅 /丽蝇 (lìying) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Chinese Mandarin: 綠頭蒼蠅 /绿头苍蝇 (lǜtóu cāngying) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Czech: bzučivka — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Dutch: bromvlieg — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Dutch: aasvlieg — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Esperanto: kaliforo — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Finnish: raatokärpänen — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • French: mouche à viande — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Galician: vareixa — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Galician: moscón — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • German: Schmeißfliege — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • German: Aasfliege — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • German: Schmeiße — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Greek: κρεατόμυγα (kreatómyga) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Icelandic: maðkafluga — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Japanese: クロバエ (kurobae) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Macedonian: мува месарка (muva mesarka) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Malay: langau hijau — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Māori: rango — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Māori: ngaro — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Māori: rango tamumu — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Navajo: tséʼédǫ́ʼii dootłʼizhí — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Norwegian Bokmål: spyflue — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: spyfluge — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Polish: plujka — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Portuguese: varejeira — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Russian: мясна́я му́ха (mjasnája múxa) — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Serbo-Croatian: zujara — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Serbo-Croatian: zunzara — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Serbo-Croatian: zundarača — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Spanish: moscardón — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Spanish: moscarda — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Swedish: spyfluga — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Turkish: kurt sineği — flies of the family Calliphoridae
  • Ottoman Turkish: قورت سیڭكی (kurt sineği) — flies of the family Calliphoridae