pests

noun

any unwanted and destructive insect or other animal that attacks food or crops or livestock etc.

a persistently annoying person

any epidemic disease with a high death rate

a serious (sometimes fatal) infection of rodents caused by Yersinia pestis and accidentally transmitted to humans by the bite of a flea that has bitten an infected animal

Roots

pestispest- · Latin · plague

Synonyms & related words for pests

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of pests. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to pests

Explore words related to pests — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include pesterer, vermin, disinfest, fleahopper, insects, pestology, pestilence, plague. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Where does pests come from?

The word pests breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root pest-, from Latin pestis (“plague”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.