"lovebug" meaning in English

See lovebug in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: lovebugs [plural]
Etymology: From love + bug. From their mating behavior, remaining paired up for several days during copulation. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|love|bug}} love + bug Head templates: {{en-noun}} lovebug (plural lovebugs)
  1. An insect, the honeymoon fly (Plecia nearctica, family Biblionidae), native to Central America and the southeastern United States. Synonyms: double-headed bug, kissybug
    Sense id: en-lovebug-en-noun-w91qrsTS Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms of address, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Love Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 73 21 6 Disambiguation of English terms of address: 79 17 4 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 83 16 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 83 15 1 Disambiguation of Love: 46 3 51
  2. An insect native to subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan (Plecia longiforceps).
    Sense id: en-lovebug-en-noun-SYnQFIO0
  3. (informal) A person who is in love; a sweetheart. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-lovebug-en-noun-f0WnT2JI Categories (other): Love, People Disambiguation of Love: 46 3 51 Disambiguation of People: 0 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Categories (other): Bibionomorphs Disambiguation of Bibionomorphs: 0 0 0

Inflected forms

{
  "categories": [
    {
      "_dis": "0 0 0",
      "kind": "other",
      "langcode": "en",
      "name": "Bibionomorphs",
      "orig": "en:Bibionomorphs",
      "parents": [],
      "source": "w+disamb"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "love",
        "3": "bug"
      },
      "expansion": "love + bug",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From love + bug. From their mating behavior, remaining paired up for several days during copulation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lovebugs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "lovebug (plural lovebugs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "73 21 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "79 17 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms of address",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "83 16 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "83 15 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "46 3 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Love",
          "orig": "en:Love",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An insect, the honeymoon fly (Plecia nearctica, family Biblionidae), native to Central America and the southeastern United States."
      ],
      "id": "en-lovebug-en-noun-w91qrsTS",
      "links": [
        [
          "insect",
          "insect"
        ],
        [
          "honeymoon fly",
          "honeymoon fly"
        ],
        [
          "Central America",
          "Central America"
        ],
        [
          "United States",
          "United States"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "double-headed bug"
        },
        {
          "word": "kissybug"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              261,
              269
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 June 30, Raphael Rashid, “Seoul wrestles with how to handle invasion of ‘lovebugs’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The bugs, officially called Plecia longiforceps, earned their nickname from their distinctive mating behaviour, flying attached as couples during copulation. […] Originally from subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan and Japan’s Ryukyu islands, the lovebugs were first scientifically identified in South Korea during a major 2022 outbreak.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An insect native to subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan (Plecia longiforceps)."
      ],
      "id": "en-lovebug-en-noun-SYnQFIO0",
      "links": [
        [
          "insect",
          "insect"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 3 51",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Love",
          "orig": "en:Love",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "0 0 100",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "People",
          "orig": "en:People",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              44,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Dee Kassabian, My Four Fathers and Other Short Stories, page 45:",
          "text": "His parents flipped their lids when the two lovebugs got hitched. Jonnie couldn't stand the fact that her beautiful young son, gone so long over seas, had now tangled up with an older woman, and even worse, an older divorced woman […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is in love; a sweetheart."
      ],
      "id": "en-lovebug-en-noun-f0WnT2JI",
      "links": [
        [
          "in love",
          "in love"
        ],
        [
          "sweetheart",
          "sweetheart"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person who is in love; a sweetheart."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lovebug"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms of address",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "en:Bibionomorphs",
    "en:Love",
    "en:People"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "love",
        "3": "bug"
      },
      "expansion": "love + bug",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From love + bug. From their mating behavior, remaining paired up for several days during copulation.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lovebugs",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "lovebug (plural lovebugs)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (family)",
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (species)"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An insect, the honeymoon fly (Plecia nearctica, family Biblionidae), native to Central America and the southeastern United States."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "insect",
          "insect"
        ],
        [
          "honeymoon fly",
          "honeymoon fly"
        ],
        [
          "Central America",
          "Central America"
        ],
        [
          "United States",
          "United States"
        ]
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "double-headed bug"
        },
        {
          "word": "kissybug"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (species)"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              261,
              269
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2025 June 30, Raphael Rashid, “Seoul wrestles with how to handle invasion of ‘lovebugs’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:",
          "text": "The bugs, officially called Plecia longiforceps, earned their nickname from their distinctive mating behaviour, flying attached as couples during copulation. […] Originally from subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan and Japan’s Ryukyu islands, the lovebugs were first scientifically identified in South Korea during a major 2022 outbreak.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An insect native to subtropical regions of south-eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan (Plecia longiforceps)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "insect",
          "insect"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English informal terms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              44,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Dee Kassabian, My Four Fathers and Other Short Stories, page 45:",
          "text": "His parents flipped their lids when the two lovebugs got hitched. Jonnie couldn't stand the fact that her beautiful young son, gone so long over seas, had now tangled up with an older woman, and even worse, an older divorced woman […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is in love; a sweetheart."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "in love",
          "in love"
        ],
        [
          "sweetheart",
          "sweetheart"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) A person who is in love; a sweetheart."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "lovebug"
}

Download raw JSONL data for lovebug meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-07-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-07-01 using wiktextract (45c4a21 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.