How to Use mantis in a Sentence

mantis

noun
Definition of mantisnext
  • Right now, this dead leaf mantis is the size of an ant.
    — cincinnati.com, 30 Apr. 2021
  • What, though, to make of the mantis, owner of the cyclopean ear?
    — Stephanie Pain, Discover Magazine, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The mantises have made themselves quite at home, in fact.
    — Jenny Hollander, Marie Claire, 9 Jan. 2019
  • The devil’s flower mantis moves its forelegs back and forth and clicks, like a haunted clock.
    — Cara Giaimo, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2020
  • The Congo green mantis opens its mouth, shows its colorful forelegs and spreads its wings.
    — Cara Giaimo, New York Times, 3 Sep. 2020
  • Playing out over the past months, that task is being done with what in the distance appears as a praying mantis.
    — Kevin Spear, OrlandoSentinel.com, 18 July 2017
  • At the entrance, a 55-foot-tall praying mantis spews flames and swivels its head as if searching for its next piece of kebab meat.
    — Andrea Sachs, The Denver Post, 25 Jan. 2017
  • The adult female mantis lays her massive egg case, known as an ootheca, on twigs, stems, rocks, or even the sides of buildings or fence posts.
    — oregonlive, 8 Jan. 2023
  • The mantises more than most seem almost to have an eerie awareness of the giants with their cameras standing around them.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 18 Apr. 2018
  • To inflate this smelly love balloon, the mantis pumps it full of a fluid called hemolymph, which is a bit like blood for invertebrates.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Apr. 2021
  • Without hesitating, the hornet rushed the mantis and bit off its head.
    — Steve Bender, Southern Living, 27 May 2020
  • Some crustaceans have excellent color vision (like mantis shrimps), but that may not be the case with the coconut crab.
    — Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 4 July 2018
  • Yet the stick-mimicking mantises of Africa can be nearly as long as your forearm.
    — Natalie Angier, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2017
  • Preying mantises have reached full size — some as large as five inches — have mated, eaten their mates, and made egg masses all over the world.
    — Sally McCabe, Philly.com, 12 Oct. 2017
  • To test how praying mantises see the world, scientists have built the first cinema just for insects.
    — National Geographic, 28 Apr. 2017
  • But new research adds a strange anatomical wrinkle to the love life of an Amazonian species called the dragon mantis.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Apr. 2021
  • Other mantis species can also resemble twigs and even dead leaves.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 8 May 2023
  • During spring and summer the praying mantis is leaf green, which is an adaptation that allows it to be camouflaged.
    — Patrice Hanlon, The Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2017
  • Like some rare breed of albino praying mantis, Meredith tends to lurk in the dark, elegant yet frightening.
    — Peter Debruge, chicagotribune.com, 22 June 2017
  • Turning the conversation to his pride in his teammates is as familiar a Horford move as one of his praying-mantis corner threes.
    — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 30 May 2022
  • The drone arrives overhead with a roar, hovers for a moment, then lowers itself towards the green circle like a mantis, three sets of propellers churning the air into whorls of straw and dust.
    — The Economist, 9 June 2018
  • Maryland is currently home to five species of praying mantis, but only one is native, which is the Carolina mantis.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 9 Nov. 2022
  • Maryland is currently home to five species of praying mantis, but only one is native, which is the Carolina mantis.
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 9 Nov. 2022
  • The findings could even inspire robots that navigate the world like the mantises—save for grabbing prey with spiky arms and decapitating them.
    — Matt Simon, WIRED, 9 Aug. 2019
  • Kreuze has been scooping the hordes of mantises into a giant box with the hope of giving them to someone who actually wants to live with praying mantises.
    — Jenny Hollander, Marie Claire, 9 Jan. 2019
  • Outside the academy, the 12-foot-tall pink orchid mantis next to the double-deinonychuses is more than just a pretty decoration.
    — Lauren McCutcheon, Philly.com, 6 June 2018
  • Popular theories are that the spider is masquerading as the threatening head of a snake or praying mantis.
    — National Geographic, 16 Dec. 2016
  • Unlike the mantis, Mr. Anglerfish does not die as Ms. Anglerfish subsumes him into her body.
    — Avi Selk, courant.com, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Look no further than the camouflage abilities of the dead leaf butterfly, the flower mantis, or the freaky vanishing octopus for proof.
    — Bethany Hubbard, Discover Magazine, 10 Dec. 2014
  • Among the newfound creatures are unicorn mantises, which have mysterious, hornlike structures on their heads, as seen above on a member of the genus Zoolea.
    — Magnus Wennman, National Geographic, 17 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mantis.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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