gecko
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gecko
1705–15; < New Latin gekko < Dutch; origin uncertain; alleged to be a Malay word imitative of the lizard's call.
Explanation
A gecko is a small reptile with sticky feet that help it to climb smooth surfaces. In many warm parts of the world, geckos are commonly found on windows, doors, and ceilings. Most geckos are green, although these little reptiles come in nearly every color you can imagine, from brown to electric blue. Their skin is hairy, unlike the thick, rough scales of many lizards. In addition to their famously sticky feet, geckos are notable for their lack of eyelids (they lick their eyeballs to keep them moist), and "scored" tails that snap off easily in the clutches of a predator and grow back rapidly.
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:
Her favorite is their outdoor table, which Greene crafted from leftover teak and inlaid with gecko leaves, a nod to her late mother’s favorite plant.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2025
As a common terms, the authors suggested "van Gogh’s starry dwarf gecko."
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024
When researchers discovered a gecko that reminded them of the paintings of van Gogh, they gave it the scientific name Cnemaspis vangoghi.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2024
Scientifically, the discovery also offers vital information about specialized physical features of the gecko skull and how they developed.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2023
A beige gecko, the color of an undercooked biscuit, regarded her with interested eyes.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
In particular, the front surfaces of the vertebrae of known snakes and lizards except geckoes are concave, and the rear surfaces are convex; that doesn’t appear to be the case in Tetrapodophis, he says.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 23, 2015
After two hours of searching the cactus, aloe, and prickly acacia—sometimes crawling to get a better look at tree trunks and leaf litter—I counted exactly six whiptail lizards, three toads, two geckoes, and one santanero.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2011
Most geckoes are dull coloured, yellow to brown, and they soon change colour from lighter to dark tints.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 5 "Gassendi, Pierre" to "Geocentric" by Various
The geckoes are small, carnivorous, mostly nocturnal animals with large eyes and vertical, elliptical pupils.
From The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary Section F, G and H by Project Gutenberg
The other is said to form a peculiar genus of geckoes, but both its locality and affinities appear to be somewhat doubtful.
From Island Life Or the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras by Wallace, Alfred Russel
Wildlife enthusiast Fred, who had just turned six at the time of filming in the summer and autumn of 2024, enjoyed spotting scorpions, snakes, monkeys, monitor lizards, eagles, hermit crabs, geckos and flying lemurs.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
Spanish police announced on Saturday they had raided a unlicensed animal sanctuary and rescued hundreds of exotic creatures including leopard tortoises, iguanas and geckos.
From Barron's ● Nov. 15, 2025
Listed as threatened since 1990, these long-lived reptiles don’t live alone; they can dig up to 25 burrows a year—and share the space with creatures from geckos to cottontails.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 12, 2023
Helioscopus dickersonae, Meyer said, was likely similar in appearance to banded geckos or leopard geckos, in that it didn't have the adhesive toe pads that many modern geckos have.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2023
All God’s creatures have names, whether they slither across our path or show up for sale at our front stoop: bushbuck, mongoose, tarantula, cobra, the red-and-black monkey called ngonndo, geckos scurrying up the walls.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
