SILKWORM

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does silkworm mean? 

• SILKWORM (noun)
  The noun SILKWORM has 2 senses:

1. the commercially bred hairless white caterpillar of the domestic silkworm moth which spins a cocoon that can be processed to yield silk fiber; the principal source of commercial silk

2. larva of a saturniid moth; spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon

  Familiarity information: SILKWORM used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SILKWORM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The commercially bred hairless white caterpillar of the domestic silkworm moth which spins a cocoon that can be processed to yield silk fiber; the principal source of commercial silk

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("silkworm" is a kind of...):

caterpillar (a wormlike and often brightly colored and hairy or spiny larva of a butterfly or moth)

Meronyms (parts of "silkworm"):

sericterium; serictery; silk gland (silk-producing gland of insects (especially of a silkworm) or spiders)

Holonyms ("silkworm" is a member of...):

Bombyx; genus Bombyx (type genus of the Bombycidae: Chinese silkworm moth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Larva of a saturniid moth; spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

giant silkworm; silkworm; wild wilkworm

Hypernyms ("silkworm" is a kind of...):

caterpillar (a wormlike and often brightly colored and hairy or spiny larva of a butterfly or moth)

Meronyms (parts of "silkworm"):

sericterium; serictery; silk gland (silk-producing gland of insects (especially of a silkworm) or spiders)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "silkworm"):

ailanthus silkworm; Samia cynthia (large green silkworm of the cynthia moth)

Holonyms ("silkworm" is a member of...):

family Saturniidae; Saturniidae (important and widely distributed family of moths including some of the largest insects known)

 Context examples 

Some silkworms' houses, made of the same materials, are scattered over the desks.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He lamented the fatal mistake the world had been so long in, of using silkworms, while we had such plenty of domestic insects who infinitely excelled the former, because they understood how to weave, as well as spin.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)