dolphin
part of speech
noun (a dolphin, dolphins)
meaning for a pupil
1) A dolphin is a clever sea mammal with a long snout and a curved fin, that lives in groups and breathes air through a blowhole. tree →
2) Some kinds of dolphin live in rivers. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons dolphins are mammals, not fish: they breathe air, are warm-blooded and feed their babies milk. They use clicks and echoes (echolocation) to find food. In everyday life people watch dolphins from boats in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and many coasts. Phrases: «a pod of dolphins», «bottlenose dolphin», «dolphin-friendly tuna».
examples
- A pod of dolphins swam beside our boat. tree →
- Dolphins breathe through a blowhole on their head. tree →
- A dolphin is a mammal, not a fish. tree →
- Dolphins use echolocation to find fish. tree →
- The dolphins leapt out of the water. tree →
- Baby dolphins are called calves. tree →
- Some dolphins live in rivers. tree →
- Dolphins are very playful and clever. tree →
- His usual attributes are the trident, horse, and dolphin. tree →
note
Plural: dolphins. A group is a «pod». Trap: a «dolphin» (mammal) vs «dolphinfish» or «mahi-mahi» (a real fish). Orcas (killer whales) are actually the largest dolphins. Ph sounds like f: DOL-fin.
In the corpora
- Dolphins sleep with half of their brain at a time, switching sides, so they can keep coming up to breathe.
- Dolphins ride the waves made by boats and whales, which saves energy and seems to be fun for them.
- A bottlenose dolphin has around 80 to 100 cone-shaped teeth, gets only one set for life, and swallows fish whole.
- Porpoises are smaller cousins of dolphins with rounded heads, no long beak and spade-shaped teeth.
- The closest living relatives of hippos are whales and dolphins.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «dolphin» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.