DictionaryAI

wasp

noun · WASP noun
WAHSP/wɑsp/UKWOSP/wɒsp/

Pluralwasps, WASPs, Wasps

5 meanings of wasp

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A winged insect with a narrow waist and usually a sting, especially the familiar black-and-yellow kind that builds paper nests; more broadly, any related insect that is not a bee or an ant.

    We moved the picnic indoors after a wasp kept circling the table.

    The gardener was stung twice while clearing a wasps' nest from under the shed roof.

  2. 2
    white Protestantnoun · WASPUSacronym
    Short for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant: a white American with Protestant and usually British roots, often from a rich, powerful family.

    The novel skewers the WASP establishment of 1950s Boston, with its country clubs and quiet snobbery.

    He was the kind of WASP who summered in Maine and never discussed money.

    UsageWritten in capitals: a WASP, the WASPs, WASP culture. Usually critical of inherited privilege.

    Note

    It often carries a sense of decline, too: Joseph Alsop spoke of the ever-diminishing group of survivors of the WASP ascendancy.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Joseph Alsop described an ever-diminishing group of survivors of the WASP ascendancy. nybooks.com

Less common meanings

  1. 3
    noun
    Short for Women Airforce Service Pilots: the World War II program of US civilian women who flew military aircraft at home, or one of its members.
  2. 4
    nounrare
    A person who behaves angrily or insolently, ready to snap at others.
  3. 5
    verbrare
    To move about like a wasp, or to buzz like one.

Practice

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Origin

The word goes back to *wóbʰseh₂, the Proto-Indo-European word for "wasp," which came from *webʰ- ("to weave"), a name that points to the insect's woven nests. It passed through Proto-Germanic *wapsō and Proto-West Germanic *wapsu to Old English wæsp or wæps and then to Middle English wasp, waspe, or waps. Dutch wesp, German Wespe, Danish hveps, and Latin vespa are comparable words. English grasp shows the same switch between the s and p sounds.