Standard Lemma guide

botfly

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.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: B AA1 T F L AY2 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

One of several dipterous insects of the family Oestridae, the larvae of which are parasites on many animals, including humans.

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

stout-bodied hairy dipterous fly whose larvae are parasites on humans and other mammals

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: gadfly

Narrower terms: horse botfly, Gasterophilus intestinalis, human botfly, Dermatobia hominis, sheep botfly, sheep gadfly, Oestrus ovis

History

Etymology

From bot + fly.

Across languages

Translations

48 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Southern Altai: кӧгӧн (kögön) — insect
  • Assamese: ডাঁহ (dãh) — insect
  • Azerbaijani: gigovun — insect
  • Azerbaijani: mozalan — insect
  • Bashkir: күгәүен (kügəwen) — insect
  • Belarusian: авадзе́нь (avadzjénʹ) — insect
  • Catalan: estre — insect
  • Chinese Mandarin: 狂蠅 /狂蝇 (kuángying) — insect
  • Chinese Mandarin: 膚蠅 /肤蝇 (fūying) — insect
  • Czech: střeček — insect
  • Danish: bremse — insect
  • Danish: brems — insect
  • Danish: hestebremse — insect
  • Dutch: horzel — insect
  • Finnish: kiiliäinen — insect
  • Finnish: saivartaja — insect
  • French: œstre — insect
  • Georgian: მაწუხელა (mac̣uxela) — insect
  • Georgian: ბორა (bora) — insect
  • German: Dasselfliege — insect
  • German: Biesfliege — insect
  • Greek: οίστρος (oístros) — insect
  • Ancient Greek: οἶστρος (oîstros) — insect
  • Hungarian: bagócslégy — insect
  • Ingrian: kiiliäin — insect
  • Ingrian: sokiain — insect
  • Irish: boiteog — insect
  • Italian: estro — insect
  • Japanese: ヒツジバエ (hitsujibae) — insect
  • Nandi: sokorio — insect
  • Navajo: łį́į́ʼ bitsísʼná — insect
  • Norman: bourdon à j'va — insect
  • Norwegian Bokmål: brems — insect
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hestebrems — insect
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: brems — insect
  • Polish: giez — insect
  • Portuguese: mosca-varejeira — insect
  • Portuguese: mosca-berneira — insect
  • Romanian: streche — insect
  • Russian: о́вод (óvod) — insect
  • Serbo-Croatian: обад — insect
  • Serbo-Croatian: obad — insect
  • Spanish: éstrido — insect
  • Swedish: styngfluga — insect
  • Udmurt: лузь (luź) — insect
  • Ukrainian: о́від (óvid) — insect
  • Welsh: robin y gyrrwr — insect
  • Welsh: crehyryn — insect