hatchling
part of speech
noun (a hatchling, hatchlings)
meaning for a pupil
A hatchling is a baby animal that has just come out of its egg, such as a bird, turtle, snake or crocodile. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons on life cycles, «hatch» is when the young breaks out of the egg and «hatchling» names the newborn. Sea turtle hatchlings crawl to the ocean at night, guided by moonlight; beach lights can confuse them.
examples
- The turtle hatchlings raced towards the sea. tree →
- We watched the chick hatchlings in the classroom incubator. tree →
- A crocodile mother carries hatchlings in her mouth. tree →
- The hatchling was wet and tiny. tree →
- Lights on the beach confuse sea turtle hatchlings. tree →
- Hatchlings need warmth to survive. tree →
note
Countable. «-ling» means small or young (duckling, gosling). A hatchling is just hatched; later it becomes a «nestling» or «fledgling» (birds).
In the corpora
- Crocodiles lay eggs in nests; the mother guards them and carries the hatchlings to water in her mouth.
- Warmer sand gives more girl hatchlings and cooler sand more boys, and bright beach lights can lead hatchlings the wrong way.
- Bright beach lights confuse turtle hatchlings, which crawl towards the lights instead of the moonlit sea.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hatchling» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.