English · Word Candidate

spider

/ˈspaɪ̯də/

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Also seen as: spiders · spidering · spidered

Sense 1

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

loài động vật eight chân, ăn thịt, thuộc họ Araneae

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Noun

Examples

Little Miss Muffet, She sat on a tuffet, Eating of curds and whey; There came a little spider, Who sat down beside her, And frighted Miss Muffet away.

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Sense 2

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A program which follows links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

chương trình thu thập thông tin trên World Wide Web

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Noun

Examples

Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. The first is the spider, also called the crawler, which visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site.

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Sense 3

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To move like a spider.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

di chuyển giống như con nhện

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Verb

Examples

A year later she returned to El Cap and spidered up the wall again — this time in 23 hours.

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Sense 4

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To cover a surface like a cobweb.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

che phủ bề mặt như một tấm lưới nhện

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Verb

Examples

High walls surrounded it on all sides, each one covered with the skeletal stems of climbing plants that spidered across the stones, and the ground was cobbled between patches of frozen grass.

Usage example from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01)

Sources & notes

Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-08-01 via kaikki.org).

Common questions

What does “spider” mean?

Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.

Is “spider” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.