WATER FLEA

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does water flea mean? 

• WATER FLEA (noun)
  The noun WATER FLEA has 2 senses:

1. minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms

2. minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae

  Familiarity information: WATER FLEA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WATER FLEA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Minute free-swimming freshwater copepod having a large median eye and pear-shaped body and long antennae used in swimming; important in some food chains and as intermediate hosts of parasitic worms that affect man e.g. Guinea worms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

cyclops; water flea

Hypernyms ("water flea" is a kind of...):

copepod; copepod crustacean (minute marine or freshwater crustaceans usually having six pairs of limbs on the thorax; some abundant in plankton and others parasitic on fish)

Holonyms ("water flea" is a member of...):

genus Cyclops (copepod water fleas)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Minute freshwater crustacean having a round body enclosed in a transparent shell; moves about like a flea by means of hairy branched antennae

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

daphnia; water flea

Hypernyms ("water flea" is a kind of...):

branchiopod; branchiopod crustacean; branchiopodan (aquatic crustaceans typically having a carapace and many pairs of leaflike appendages used for swimming as well as respiration and feeding)

Holonyms ("water flea" is a member of...):

genus Daphnia (water fleas)

 Context examples 

It is caused by drinking water contaminated with water fleas.

(Dracunculiasis, NCI Thesaurus)