lemming
pronunciation
How to pronounce lemming in British English:
UK [ˈlemɪŋ]
How to pronounce lemming in American English:
US [ˈlɛmɪŋ]
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- Noun:
- any of various short-tailed furry-footed rodents of circumpolar distribution
Word Origin
- lemming (n.)
- small arctic rodent, c. 1600, from Norwegian lemming, from Old Norse lomundr "lemming." Perhaps from Lapp luomek. Figurative sense (in reference to their mass migrations that sometimes end in plunges into the sea) is from 1958.
Example
- 1. Wall street is often known for its lemming like-behavior .
- 2. And take all the lemming reporters with him .
- 3. North american lemming having a white winter coat and some claws much enlarged .
- 4. Grand lemming : or " king of the lemmings , " name for the leader , who rules over the celebrations on lemming races .
- 5. These might be anything from a field biologist 's notes of lemming populations on spitzbergen to a physicist 's creation of muon tracks in a cloud chamber , or from a set of equations in the mathematical imagination to a vast computer model of the world 's climate .