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Glite Dictionary
dog-day cicada

dog-day cicada

9.9
A large insect that makes a loud buzzing sound in July and August in North America
  • noun
  • /ˈdɔɡˌdeɪ sɪˈkeɪdə/
  • Specialized
translation icon : cigarra de los días de perro
  • The dog-day cicada fills the air with its buzzing song every July and August.

Examples

  • I spotted a dog-day cicada clinging to the bark of an oak tree.

  • Many children recognize summer by the sound of the dog-day cicada in the trees.

  • The dog-day cicada sings loudly in the summer heat.

  • I heard a dog-day cicada this afternoon.

  • The dog-day cicada fills the summer air with its loud song during July and August.

  • Every year, the dog-day cicada emerges in late summer, announcing the heat of the season.

  • You can hear the distinct sound of the dog-day cicada buzzing in the trees throughout the hot summer months.

Synonyms

harvest fly
vsdog-day cicada
  • Archaic
8.1

A loud insect that sings in summer, often in July and August

is the specific North American species identified by that summer song

Surface Forms

dog-day cicada singular
dog-day cicadas plural

Morphology

dog-day + Cicada

The compound is compositionally analyzable: it names a cicada associated with the 'dog days' (the hot period of summer), so if a learner knows the modifier 'dog-day' as meaning the hottest summer days and 'cicada' as an insect, the sense follows. However, 'dog-day' is an idiomatic time-reference that many B1 learners may not know (and the hyphenated form is less transparent), so the relation is partly clear but not fully predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

Dog-day cicada gets its name from the insect's loud song in the hottest 'dog days' of summer. People long ago called the hottest time 'dog days' after a bright 'dog' star, so the cicada that sings then is called the dog-day cicada.