antechinus
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.46 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any member of the genus Antechinus of small carnivorous Australian marsupials that resemble shrews.
Example Sentences
- "These are distinguished from the Monodelphia, or Placentalia, by bringing forth their young in a very rudimentary state, nourishing them in a “marsupium,” which is either a regular pouch or a simple skinfold, such as our native cats and antechini develop at the time of parturition."
- "Being on the West Coast at the time, and always anxious to forward any scientific investigations, I collected all the varieties of kangaroo rats, antechini, and rats that came under my observation."
- "Smaller than the wambengers, the antechinuses are secretive and are seldom seen by people unless they are caught and brought into houses by domestic cats."
- "Two species of antechini live above the snowline. These are pugnacious rat-sized marsupials. Male antechini copulate so vigorously that they die from exhaustion."
- "I thought it was my fault until I consulted the experts, and found that antechinus die naturally at this time of the year.[…]Antechinus eat beetles, spiders and cockroaches, which they find in decaying litter and topsoil in their habitat of dense ground cover."
- "If held as a colony outside the breeding season, antechinus show relatively little aggression while still forming a linear hierarchy."
Etymology
Borrowed from taxonomic name Antechinus.
Word Breakdown
- Root: Antechinus
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
agile antechinus
Atherton antechinus
brown antechinus
buff-footed antechinus
cinnamon antechinus
dusky antechinus
false antechinus
fawn antechinus