amplexus

American  

[am-plek-suhs] / æmˈplɛk səs /

noun

• amplexuses,
  plural
• amplexus
  plural

1. the clasping posture of fertilization in frogs and toads.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• amplexus
  plural
• amplexuses
  plural

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

See Examples For:

amplexus

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

Clasping pairs are usually found at the edge of the water, but sometimes amplexus takes place in trees or bushes.

From Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Smilisca by William E. Duellman

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