temnospondyl
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of many extinct primitive amphibians (labyrinthodonts) of the order Temnospondyli, from the Carboniferous, Permian and Triassic periods.
Example Sentences
- "Experts disagree over whether temnospondyls were ancestral to modern amphibians (frogs, salamanders and caecilians), or whether the whole group died out without leaving descendants."
- "Nigerpeton is a temnospondyl, more closely related to modern amphibians than to amniotes, but far bigger than today's diminutive amphibians."
Etymology
From translingual Temnospondyli, from Ancient Greek τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”) + σπόνδυλος (spóndulos), Ionic/Attic form of σφόνδυλος (sphóndulos, “vertebra”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Temnospondyli, τέμνω