Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
tiger moth

tiger moth

6.0
A medium-sized moth with bright patterned wings and a caterpillar called a woolly bear
  • noun
  • /ˈtaɪɡər mɔθ/
translation icon : polilla tigre
  • In the garden, we spotted a tiger moth with striking patterns that caught our attention.

Examples

  • As summer approached, the children were excited to see a tiger moth caterpillar, commonly known as a woolly bear.

  • We watched the tiger moth flutter to the far bank, lost him in the underbrush, and Hortense shrugged.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • The beautiful tiger moth landed on the flower, showcasing its vibrant wings.

Synonyms

moth
vstiger moth
71 1.0

An insect like a butterfly that flies at night, often with feathery antennae

is a medium-sized colorful type whose larvae are called woolly bears
arctiid moth
vstiger moth
  • Specialized
9.9

A moth with a thick body and broad wings that often has bright stripes or spots and hairy caterpillars

is a medium-sized colorful type whose larvae are called woolly bears

Surface Forms

tiger moth singular
tiger moths plural

Morphology

tiger + moth

The compound 'tiger moth' denotes a kind of moth whose appearance or patterning evokes a tiger, so its meaning is directly inferable from the constituents 'tiger' + 'moth'. This animal-naming pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would very likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

Tiger moth comes from the moth's bright, tiger-like wing patterns. The tiger part describes its striped orange and black look and the moth part is the insect, so the name means a moth with bold, tiger-like colors.