alligator

«alligator» in Mova's school dictionary: A large reptile with a long body, short legs, a long wide… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (an alligator, alligators)

meaning for a pupil

A large reptile with a long body, short legs, a long wide snout and strong jaws with many teeth, which lives in rivers, lakes and swamps in the south-east USA and in China. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, alligators are reptiles: cold-blooded, with scaly skin, and they lay eggs. In safety lessons in places like Florida, children learn to stay well away from the edges of ponds and lakes where alligators may live and never to feed them. Phrases: alligator snapping turtle, see you later, alligator; alligator clip.

examples

• The alligator lay still in the swamp. tree →
• Alligators live in Florida and Louisiana. tree →
• Never feed an alligator. tree →
• An alligator has a wide, rounded snout. tree →
• Baby alligators hatch from eggs. tree →
• "See you later, alligator!" "In a while, crocodile!" tree →
• Stay far from the water's edge where alligators might hide. tree →
• *1 An Atlanta friend heard this story in Florida, but an alligator was substituted for the fox, and a little boy for the rabbit. tree →

note

Use "an" because it starts with a vowel sound: an alligator. Countable. Common confusion: alligators have a wider U-shaped snout and their lower teeth are hidden when the mouth is closed; crocodiles have a narrower V-shaped snout and show lower teeth. Alligators live in the USA and China; crocodiles live in many more places, including Australia.

In the corpora

• American alligators live in swamps, rivers and lakes in the south-eastern USA and recovered from being endangered once hunting was controlled.
• Alligators bellow so deeply that the water on their backs dances, and babies call from inside their eggs when ready to hatch.
• The alligator snapping turtle lures fish with a pink worm-shaped flap on its tongue and then snaps its jaws shut.
• There are only two kinds of alligator in the world, the American and the Chinese.
• Alligators live in fresh water all over Florida, even in small ponds and canals.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «alligator» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.