spadefoot
Americannoun
-
spadefoots
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of spadefoot
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:
"I'm really more of a paleoecologist, paleogeographer, not a taxonomist," says Dr. Cruz, who noticed unusual features in the Tar Pits specimens that distinguished S. labreae from known spadefoot toads.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
The spadefoot toad, or Spea labreae, is one of only two ice age amphibians to have been found in the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Under the right conditions, the spadefoot tadpole will transform into a voracious predator of its own species.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 30, 2023
Pfennig and his lab members think spadefoot toads have followed that evolutionary trajectory.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 28, 2018
The spadefoot toads and turtles and slithering creatures, the chattering of black insects.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
![]()
“This is a behavior that breaks all the rules of evolution,” says Karin Pfennig, a biologist at the University of North Carolina who studies the spadefoots.
From New York Times ● Aug. 14, 2014
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.