amphibian
/æmˈfɪbɪən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.72 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Capable of operating on both land and water; amphibious.
noun
An animal of the Amphibia; any vertebrate that does not have amniotic eggs, typically living both on land and in water.
noun
A vehicle which can operate on both land and water.
noun
A person with two distinct characters, qualities or identities.
Example Sentences
- "The prime exemplar of such a cast of mind must be Johann Ladislas Pyrker, a definite amphibian and ‘Austro-Hungarian’ in his literary and in his public life. The son of another estate bailiff in Transdanubia, Pyrker became successively a Hungarian official, an Austrian monk and at length a fairly worldly abbot at Lilienfeld, then a bishop in Hungary, patriarch of Venice, and archbishop in Hungary again."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin amphibius [from Ancient Greek ἀμφίβιος (amphíbios), from ἀμφίς (amphís, “of both kinds”) + βίος (bíos, “life”)] + -an.