tarantula
Any of the large, hairy New World spiders comprising the family Theraphosidae.
Other meanings
A member of certain other groups of spiders, generally characterized by large size, hairiness, or membership of infraorder Mygalomorphae to which Theraphosidae family also belongs.
A species of wolf spider, Lycosa tarantula, native to southern Europe, the mildly poisonous bite of which was once thought to cause an extreme urge to dance (tarantism).
A kind of
- wolf spider
Related words
- tarantuloid
- atypical tarantula
- Brazilian whiteknee tarantula
- eastern tarantula
- tarantula hawk
- tarantula killer
- Antilles pinktoe tarantula
- tarantulalike
- orange baboon tarantula
- Singapore blue tarantula
- tarantulated
- tarantula juice
Example sentences
Word history
From Ancient Greek "Τάρᾱς" (Greek name of the town).
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “tarantula” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.