mesopredator
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A medium-sized predator which often increases in abundance when larger predators are eliminated.
Example Sentences
- "Raccoons, skunks, snakes, cats, and foxes are mesopredators."
- "Large predators are equally important as keystone species; their removal can allow predators in the next size class down to proliferate. This phenomenon, known as meso-predator release, can have a huge impact on ecosystems."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *me Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-? Proto-Indo-European *-dʰe Proto-Indo-European *médʰi Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos Proto-Hellenic *métsos Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos)der. English meso- English predator English mesopredator From meso- + predator.