tadpole

[ tad-pohl ]

noun

1. the aquatic larva or immature form of frogs and toads, especially after the development of the internal gills and before the appearance of the forelimbs and the resorption of the tail.

tadpole

/ ˈtædˌpəʊl /

noun

1. the aquatic larva of frogs, toads, etc, which develops from a limbless tailed form with external gills into a form with internal gills, limbs, and a reduced tail

Word History and Origins

Origin of tadpole¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English tad(de)pol, equivalent to tad(de) “toad” + pol “head”; toad, poll ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of tadpole¹

C15 taddepol, from tadde toad + pol head, poll

Example Sentences

“If there’s no water, the tadpoles also can just hang out in the foam for a while,” says Mike Ryan, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Texas at Austin who has studied the túngara frog’s calls.

From Popular-Science

He was just searching, one night, for tadpoles in natural pools of water.

From Science News For Students

None of their incarnations look anything like a frog as it grows from an embryo to a tadpole.

From Quanta Magazine

By manipulating the electrical signals, we made tadpoles where everything was in the wrong place.

From Quanta Magazine

When he watched the tadpoles dart back and forth in the blue-green pools, when he climbed the rocks and ran his fingers through moss thick as wool, “it was like magic,” he says.

From Washington Post

And the “Pond Pit” snack bar will serve fried tadpole rolls.

From The Daily Beast

Next to his desk, which does not have computer on it, swims a frog he grew from a mail-order tadpole.

From The Daily Beast

But the second I met him and saw his tadpole garden, I was like, “Oh, this kid is not any cooler than me.”

From The Daily Beast

Let us not forget to add that he styled Keats "the tadpole of the Lakists."

From Project Gutenberg

Shortly after the tadpole wriggles out of the jellylike case and begins life outside the egg.

From Project Gutenberg

As the tadpole grows larger, legs appear, the hind legs first, although for a time locomotion is performed by means of the tail.

From Project Gutenberg

We distinguish frogs from tadpoles, in spite of the fact that at one stage the creature is half tadpole and half frog.

From Project Gutenberg

The map of Norway, apart from Sweden, presents an outline something like a tadpole with a crooked irregular tail.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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• boy
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• juvenile
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