Skip to content

hantik

hantík with stress marks

weaver ant

noun han-TIK Native origin Rare

Usage Note

Hantik refers to the green weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), a species well known in the Philippines for building nests by weaving leaves together. Their bite is painful and they are considered both a pest and, in some regions, a food source. Children are often warned to avoid hantik nests.

Examples

Beginner

" May hantik sa dahon. "

Natural Translation

There are weaver ants on the leaf.

Literal Translation

Has weaver-ant on leaf.

Intermediate

" Huwag hawakan ang puno ng mangga dahil puno ito ng hantik. "

Natural Translation

Don't touch the mango tree because it is full of weaver ants.

Literal Translation

Don't touch the tree of mango because full it of-weaver-ants.

Advanced

" Mag-ingat ka sa pag-akyat sa puno ng mangga dahil masakit kumagat ang mga hantik na nakatira sa mga tupi ng dahon. "

Natural Translation

Be careful climbing the mango tree because the weaver ants living in the folds of the leaves bite painfully.

Literal Translation

Be-careful you in climbing in tree of mango because painful to-bite the weaver-ants that live in the folds of-the leaf.

Free · iOS & Android

Take Tagalog with you

The full course, a 12,500-word dictionary, and flashcards that make every word stick — free to start on iOS and Android.

Tagalog builds thousands of words from a few hundred roots.

How Tagalog words work

Explore Tagalog by topic

Free guides on grammar, vocabulary, and culture to take you past single-word lookups.