Standard Lemma guide

hoverfly

noun · 1 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.

  • US: /ˈhʌ.vɚˌflaɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AH1 V ER0 F L AY2 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any of various flies from the family Syrphidae that hover in the air and feed on the nectar of flowers.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: flower fly, flower-fly

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From hover + fly.

Across languages

Translations

31 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: ذُبَاب حَوَّام (ḏubāb ḥawwām) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Arabic: ذُبَاب الزُّهُور (ḏubāb az-zuhūr) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Arabic: سِرْفَة (sirfa) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Belarusian: журчалка (žurčalka) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Bulgarian: цветарка (cvetarka) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Czech: pestřenka — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Czech: vosička — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Dutch: zweefvlieg — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Esperanto: sirfedo — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Faroese: blómufluga — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Finnish: kukkakärpänen — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • French: syrphe — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • German: Schwebfliege — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Hungarian: zengőlégy — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Ido: sirfido — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Italian: sirfidi — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Japanese: 花虻 (hanaabu) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Korean: 꽃등에과 (kkotdeung'egwa) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Lithuanian: žiedmusė — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Low German: Stahflege — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Māori: ngaro tamumu — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Navajo: tséʼédǫ́ʼii dishooí — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Polish: bzyg — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Portuguese: mosca-das-flores — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Russian: журча́лка (žurčálka) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Serbo-Croatian: osolika muha — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Slovene: trepetavka — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Spanish: sírfido — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Swedish: blomfluga — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Tamil: மிதவை ஈ (mitavai ī) — fly in the family Syrphidae
  • Ukrainian: дзюрча́лка (dzjurčálka) — fly in the family Syrphidae