crocodile
pronunciation
How to pronounce crocodile in British English:
UK [ˈkrɒkədaɪl]
How to pronounce crocodile in American English:
US [ˈkrɑːkədaɪl]
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- Noun:
- large voracious aquatic reptile having a long snout with massive jaws and sharp teeth and a body covered with bony plates; of sluggish tropical waters
Word Origin
- crocodile
- crocodile: [13] The crocodile gets its name from its habit of basking in the sun on sandbanks or on the shores of rivers. The word means literally ‘pebble-worm’, and it was coined in Greek from the nouns krókē ‘pebbles’ and drilos ‘worm’. The resulting Greek compound *krokódrīlos has never actually been found, for it lost its second r, giving krokódīlos, and this r reappeared and disappeared capriciously during the word’s journey through Latin and Old French to English. Middle English had it – the 13th century form was cokodrille – but in the 16th century the modern r-less form took over, based on Latin crocodīlus.
- crocodile (n.)
- 1560s, restored spelling of Middle English cokedrille, kokedrille (c. 1300), from Medieval Latin cocodrillus, from Latin crocodilus, from Greek krokodilos, word applied by Herodotus to the crocodile of the Nile, apparently due to its basking habits, from kroke "pebbles" + drilos "worm." The crocodile tears story was in English from at least c. 1400.
Example
- 1. The crocodile was crawling along the riverbed .
- 2. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out .
- 3. In the centre of the room an indian gharial , a fish-eating crocodile worth 15000 .
- 4. In a panic , she managed to knock out the crocodile and free herself .
- 5. A snail with implanted biocatalytic electrodes connected with crocodile clips to the external circuitry .