an immature free-living form of many animals that develops into a different adult form by metamorphosis
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025
lar•va /ˈlɑrvə/USA pronunciation
n. [countable], pl. -vae /-vi/.USA pronunciation
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025- Insectsthe immature, wingless stage of an insect in which it resembles a short worm.
- Zoologythe young of an animal without a backbone.
lar•va
(lär′və),USA pronunciation n., pl. -vae (-vē).USA pronunciation
- Insects[Entomol.]the immature, wingless, feeding stage of an insect that undergoes complete metamorphosis. See illus. under metamorphosis.
- Zoologyany animal in an analogous immature form.
- Zoologythe young of any invertebrate animal.
- Mythology larvae, [Rom. Antiq.]malignant ghosts, as lemures.
- Neo-Latin; special use of Latin larva a ghost, specter, mask, skeleton; akin to Lares
- 1645–55
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
'larva' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Japanese beetle
- ant egg
- antlion
- aphid lion
- apple tree borer
- army cutworm
- auricularia
- bardy
- bipinnaria
- bladder worm
- bloodworm
- bot
- cabbage looper
- caddisworm
- cadelle
- cankerworm
- carpenterworm
- caseworm
- caterpillar
- cattle grub
- cercaria
- chigger
- corn earworm
- corn rootworm
- cornborer
- currant borer
- currantworm
- cyst
- cysticercus
- doodlebug
- eclosion
- filaria
- fireworm
- flatheaded borer
- flyblow
- geometer
- geometrid
- glochidium
- glowworm
- golem
- grub
- grugru
- hellgrammite
- hemlock looper
- hornworm
- jointworm
- jumping bean
- larval
- larvivorous
- leaf miner