platypus
a small, aquatic, egg-laying monotreme, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, of Australia and Tasmania, having webbed feet, a tail like that of a beaver, a sensitive bill resembling that of a duck, and, in adult males, venom-injecting spurs on the ankles of the hind limbs, used primarily for fighting with other males during the breeding season.
Origin of platypus
1- Also called duckbill, duckbilled platypus.
Words Nearby platypus
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use platypus in a sentence
Those are mammals whose babies develop mainly in the womb while fed by a placenta — unlike egg-laying platypuses or marsupials, whose tiny newborns do much of their development in their mother’s pouch.
Living fast may have helped mammals like ‘ManBearPig’ dominate | Maria Temming | September 8, 2022 | Science NewsThis is the platypus of the crab world, because it’s so weird and different.
This 90-million-year-old crab had the eyes of a hunter | Philip Kiefer | January 11, 2022 | Popular-ScienceIt’s wise to carry both a bladder—like a platypus for easy, while-hiking consumption—and a sturdier container, such as a Nalgene, just in case the bladder fails.
How to avoid camping with snakes, and other valuable outdoor lessons | Noah Lederman | August 24, 2021 | Popular-ScienceWhile my platypus is great for riding around town, it’s also perfectly suited for long outings, accepts all sorts of racks and bags, and is up for anything short of technical singletrack or a full-on Lycra-clad group hammerfest.
We have to think about this holistically rather than just adding a platypus or a pterodactyl.
The woman who will decide what emoji we get to use | Tanya Basu | May 11, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
It has webbed feet, and therefore sometimes receives the name of platypus (flat-foot).
Stories of the Universe: Animal Life | B. LindsaySo, although it was a long and rough way to the little creek where the platypus lived, it did not seem at all far.
Dot and the Kangaroo | Ethel C. PedleyShe kept on fidgetting about, putting off calling to the platypus by one excuse and another: she was decidedly ill at ease.
Dot and the Kangaroo | Ethel C. PedleyDot could not hear what the Kangaroo said, but she saw the platypus hurriedly prepare to regain the water.
Dot and the Kangaroo | Ethel C. PedleyThe platypus spluttered out more dirty water, in its indignation.
Dot and the Kangaroo | Ethel C. Pedley
British Dictionary definitions for platypus
/ (ˈplætɪpəs) /
Origin of platypus
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Browse