predacious
1
8.4
- adjective
- /prɪˈdeɪʃəs/
- Specialized
:
predador
- The predacious hawk soared above, scanning the ground for small rodents.
Examples
-
Because parasitic and predacious insects often have complex searching and attack behaviors, sublethal insecticide dosages may alter this behavior and, in this way, disrupt effective biological controls.
Academic text (1992) -
The lower salinity level made it possible for a predacious water bug, Trichocorixa verticalis, to invade the lake.
Academic text (1996) -
The two tiger salamander morphs do not differ in kin recognition abilities; however, probably because both are normally predacious, both would therefore need kin recognition abilities.
Academic text (1997) -
In the garden, the predacious ladybug quickly captured an unsuspecting aphid.
-
After the rain, a predacious water bug emerged from the pond, ready to hunt for insects.
Synonyms
17
5.5
Eating other animals or insects for food
8
4.8
Hunting and eating other animals for food
1
8.4
Hunting and eating other animals for food
An animal that hunts and kills other animals for food
Antonyms
How Predatory
Surface Forms
Morphology
predacious = pred + acious
Although the word ends in a familiar adjectival suffix, the stem is not a recognizable modern English base, so the animal-related meaning is not transparently recoverable for learners.
Etymology
Predacious comes from the Latin word praeda, meaning 'prey', and it shares the same root as the common word predator. So a predacious animal is one that hunts and kills other animals because it needs that 'prey' for food.