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Ant.
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abbr.
Antarctica
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ant.
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abbr.
antonym
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ant (ănt)
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n.
Any of numerous hymenopteran insects of the family Formicidae, characteristically having wings only in the males and fertile females and living in colonies that have a complex social organization.
Idiom:
ants in (one's) pants Slang
A state of restless impatience.
[Middle English amte, from Old English ǣmete.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
-ant
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suff.
1.
a. Performing, promoting, or causing a specified action: acceptant.
b. Being in a specified state or condition: flippant.
2.
a. One that performs, promotes, or causes a specified action: deodorant.
b. One that undergoes a specified action: inhalant.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin -āns, -ant-, present participle suff. of verbs in -āre.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
ant-
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pref.
Variant of anti-.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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