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amplexus

American  
[am-plek-suhs] / æmˈplɛk səs /

noun

  • amplexuses,
    plural
  • amplexus
    plural
  1. the clasping posture of fertilization in frogs and toads.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of amplexus

1925–30; < New Latin, Latin: embrace, equivalent to amplect ( ī ) to embrace ( am-, variant of ambi- ambi- + plectī, deponent of plectere to plait, twine; cf. complex, plexus) + -tus suffix of v. action


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

All the logic and desire that guides a female frog to a specific pond vanishes once she arrives, and a melee ensues as males race to cling to her in a tight embrace called amplexus.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2022

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Bombay Night frogs in Dorsal straddle: a new amplexus mode in frogs.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 14, 2016

Male hyalinobatrachines battle on top of leaves and wrestle, with their fighting poses often resembling amplexus.

From Scientific American ● Jan. 25, 2013

Some of the specimens contain producti, and fragments of the coral named amplexus.

From Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea by John Franklin

Meeting them at the door of the room, the Librarian hastily extemporized a short speech in honour of the occasion, 'in qua,' as the University Register records, 'tribus ferme versibus amplexus est omnia.'

From Annals of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, A.D. 1598-A.D. 1867 With a Preliminary Notice of the earlier Library founded in the Fourteenth Century by William Dunn Macray

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