chrysalis
part of speech
noun (a chrysalis, chrysalises or chrysalides)
meaning for a pupil
1) The hard case a caterpillar makes around itself while it changes into a butterfly. tree →
2) The stage in a butterfly's life cycle when it is inside this case (the pupa stage). tree →
3) A time of quiet change before something new appears (figurative). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science it is a key stage of the butterfly life cycle: egg → caterpillar (larva) → chrysalis (pupa) → adult butterfly. This big change is called complete metamorphosis. Classes often watch caterpillars turn into chrysalises and then butterflies. Phrases: inside the chrysalis, come out of the chrysalis, emerge from the chrysalis.
examples
- The caterpillar hung upside down and made a chrysalis. tree →
- Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. tree →
- After two weeks the butterfly came out of its chrysalis. tree →
- A butterfly's life cycle is egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly. tree →
- Don't touch the chrysalis — it is very delicate. tree →
- The chrysalis looked like a little green jewel on the leaf. tree →
note
Pronounced KRISS-a-liss. Plural: chrysalises (common). Butterflies make a chrysalis; moths usually make a cocoon (spun from silk) — a common confusion. «Pupa» is the scientific word for this stage for both.
In the corpora
- A caterpillar turns into a butterfly inside a chrysalis, where its body breaks down and is rebuilt.
- A moth's caterpillar often makes a silk cocoon before it changes, but a butterfly's caterpillar makes a bare chrysalis.
- A caterpillar eats and eats, growing many times bigger, then inside the chrysalis its body is rebuilt into a butterfly with wings.
- A butterfly's life cycle is egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «chrysalis» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.