amphibious
pronunciation
How to pronounce amphibious in British English:
UK [æmˈfɪbiəs]
How to pronounce amphibious in American English:
US [æmˈfɪbiəs]
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- Adjective:
- relating to or characteristic of animals of the class Amphibia
- operating or living on land and in water
Word Origin
- amphibious
- amphibious: [17] The Greek prefix amphimeant ‘both, on both sides’ (hence an amphitheatre [14]: Greek and Roman theatres were semicircular, so two joined together, completely surrounding the arena, formed an amphitheatre). Combination with bios ‘life’ (as in biology) produced the Greek adjective amphibios, literally ‘leading a double life’. From the beginning of its career as an English word it was used in a very wide, general sense of ‘combining two completely distinct or opposite conditions or qualities’ (Joseph Addison, for example, used it as an 18th-century equivalent of modern unisex), but that meaning has now almost entirely given way to the word’s zoological application.At first, amphibious meant broadly ‘living on both land and water’, and so was applied by some scientists to, for example, seals; but around 1819 the zoologist William Macleay proposed the more precise application, since generally accepted, to frogs, newts, and other members of the class Amphibia whose larvae have gills but whose adults breathe with lungs.=> biology
- amphibious (adj.)
- 1640s, from Greek amphibios "having a double life" (see amphibian). Of motor vehicles, from 1915.
Example
- 1. They sent their amphibious tanks across the diyala river .
- 2. The two countries practised blockades , capturing airfields and amphibious landings .
- 3. Since 2008 , china has launched fouryuzhao-class , or type 081 amphibious assault ships .
- 4. 300 More marines and sailors aboard three large-deck amphibious assault ships are now in the waters off of new york and new jersey .
- 5. But architects are now designing amphibious homes capable of handling even the most merciless of storms .