How do you say spider in Italian?
Ragno
Use ragno to say spider in Italian.
| Origin | From the Latin word aranĕus, which comes from the Greek aráchnē. This is also where arachnophobia, aracnofobia in Italian, comes from! |
| Pronunciation | /ˈraɲɲo/ |
Ragno
Spider
Spider in Italian: Different forms
Like most nouns in Italian, ragno has two articles (definite or indefinite articles) and two numbers (singular or plural).
Un ragno
A spider
Dei ragni
Some spiders
Il ragno
The spider
I ragni
The spiders
Spider in Italian: Examples
La vedova nera è un ragno molto velenoso.
The black widow is a very venomous spider.
Come si chiamano i ragni gialli con strisce nere?
What are the yellow spiders with black stripes called?
L’Uomo Ragno è il mio supereroe preferito.
Spider-Man is my favorite superhero.
Il bambino schiaccia il ragno con un giornale arrotolato.
The child squashes the spider with a rolled-up newspaper.
Non si uccidono i ragni, portano fortuna!
Don’t kill spiders, they bring good luck!
There’s a special kind of black widow spider that is common on the Italian peninsula: la malmignatta. It’s less venomous than its international sister, but it can still require a visit to the pronto soccorso, emergency room.
It’s also curious to note that Italian makes no distinction between venomous and poisonous animals. Velenoso, from veleno (poison/venom) is the only adjective you’ll need.
Spider in Italian: Related words
Ragnetto is another common translation for spider in Italian.
It’s used as an affectionate term (it literally translates to “little spider” thanks to the Italian suffix -etto) to refer to those little house spiders that are smaller than a few millimeters.
Ragnetto
Small spider
For example, you can say…
Un ragnetto è appena saltato sopra al vaso di fiori.
A spider just hopped over the flower pot.
Not all spiders weave webs, but those that do are called ragni tessitori, orb weavers.
Ragno tessitore
Orb-weaver spider, orb weaver
Ragnatela is the most common way to translate spiderweb in Italian (another less common term would be tela di ragno. It’s a feminine noun.
La ragnatela
The spiderweb
It’s a compound word that obviously comes from ragno, spider, and tela, meaning “canvas”. A more literal translation for web would be rete, but we never use “ragnarete” so don’t use that either!
Quanto impiega un ragno a tessere una ragnatela?
How long does it take a spider to weave a web?
More free Italian resources
You might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
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