mantis

See also: Mantis

English

A burying mantis, Sphodropoda tristis

Alternative forms

• mantid

Etymology

From New Latin mantis, from Ancient Greek μάντις (mántis, “soothsayer”). Distant doublet of mind via Proto-Indo-European *méntis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmæntɪs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

mantis (countable and uncountable, plural mantises or mantes)

1. Any of various large insects of the order Mantodea that catch insects or other small animals with their powerful forelegs.

   Synonym: (archaic) rear-horse

2. (uncountable) A green colour, like that of many mantises. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   mantis:  

Derived terms

• Chinese mantis
• flower mantis
• mantis crab
• mantisfly
• mantislike
• mantis shrimp
• praying mantis
• sea mantis
• Skinner's ground mantis

Translations

any of various large insects of the order Mantodea

• Arabic: فَرَس اَلنَّبِيّ m (faras an-nabiyy), سُرْعُوف m (surʕūf)

  Hijazi Arabic: سَرْعُوف m (sarʕūf)

• Armenian: աղոթարար (hy) (aġotʻarar)
• Assamese: গাগিনী (gagini)
• Azerbaijani: dəvədəlləyi
• Belarusian: багамо́л m (bahamól)
• Bulgarian: богомо́лка f (bogomólka)
• Catalan: pregadeu (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 螳螂 (zh) (tángláng), 刀螂 (zh) (dāolang)

• Corsican: ghjumenta di preti
• Czech: kudlanka (cs) f
• Danish: knæler (da) c
• Dutch: bidsprinkhaan (nl) m
• Esperanto: manto (eo)
• Finnish: rukoilijasirkka (fi)
• French: mante (fr) f
• Galician: barbantesa (gl) f, galbana (gl) f
• Georgian: ჩოქელა (čokela)
• German: Gottesanbeterin (de) f, Fangschrecke f
• Greek:

  Ancient: μάντις m (mántis)

• Italian: mantide (it) f
• Japanese: 螳螂 (ja), 蟷螂 (ja) (かまきり, カマキリ, kamakiri, とうろう, tōrō)
• Kazakh: дәуіт (däuıt)
• Korean: 사마귀 (ko) (samagwi), 당랑(螳螂) (ko) (dangnang)
• Lithuanian: maldininkas m
• Macedonian: богомолка f (bogomolka)
• Malay: mentadak (ms)
• Manchu: ᡥᡝᠯᡳᠶᡝᠨ (heliyen)
• Māori: rō, whē
• Mongolian: цөгөрцөг (cögörcög)
• Nandi: chepkoima
• Navajo: Naakaii náázééł
• Norwegian: kneler m
• Persian: آخوندک (fa) (âxundak)
• Polish: modliszka (pl) f
• Portuguese: louva-a-deus (pt) m, mantídeo m
• Romanian: călugăriță (ro) f
• Russian: богомо́л (ru) m (bogomól)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: богомољка f

  Roman: bogomoljka (sh) f

• Slovak: kudlanka f
• Slovene: bogomoljka f
• Spanish: mantis (es) f, mantis religiosa (es), santateresa (es) f, (South América) mamboretá (es) f, mantodeo m (scientific), campamocha (es) f (Mexico)
• Sundanese: ᮎᮧᮀᮎᮧᮛᮀ (congcorang)
• Swedish: bönsyrsa (sv)
• Tày: càn mạ, mèng mạ, hảm khoan
• Ukrainian: богомо́л m (bohomól)
• Vietnamese: bọ ngựa (vi) (蜅馭), ngựa trời (馭𡗶)
• Welsh: mantis m
• Zulu: isithwalambiza class 7/8

See also

extant orders of insects in English

• jumping bristletails, archaeognathans (Archaeognatha)
• cockroaches and termites, blattodeans (Blattodea)
• beetles, coleopterans (Coleoptera)
• earwigs, dermapterans (Dermaptera)
• flies, dipterans (Diptera)
• webspinners, embiopterans (Embioptera)
• mayflies, ephemeropterans (Ephemeroptera)
• ice crawlers, grylloblattodeans (Grylloblattodea)
• true bugs, hemipterans (Hemiptera)
• hymenopterans (ants, bees, wasps, etc.) (Hymenoptera)
• butterflies and moths, lepidopterans (Lepidoptera)
• mantises, mantodeans (Mantodea)
• mantophasmids (Mantophasmatodea)
• scorpionflies, mecopterans (Mecoptera)
• megalopterans (alderflies, dobsonflies, fishflies, etc.) (Megaloptera)
• neuropterans (antlions, lacewings, mantisflies, etc.) (Neuroptera)
• damselflies and dragonflies, odonatans (Odonata)
• orthopterans (crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, etc.) (Orthoptera)
• stick insects, phasmatodeans (Phasmatodea)
• stoneflies, plecopterans (Plecoptera)
• booklice, psocodeans (Psocodea)
• snakeflies, raphidiopterans (Raphidioptera)
• fleas, siphonapterans (Siphonaptera)
• strepsipterans (Strepsiptera)
• thrips, thysanopterans (Thysanoptera)
• caddis flies, trichopterans (Trichoptera)
• zorapterans (Zoraptera)
• silverfish, zygentomans (Zygentoma)

Anagrams

• MASINT, Mastin, Matins, Tamsin, manist, matins, santim, stamin, tamins

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmantis/ [ˈmãn̪.t̪is]
• Rhymes: -antis
• Syllabification: man‧tis

Noun

mantis f (plural mantis)

1. mantis

Derived terms

• mantis religiosa

Further reading

• “mantis”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025