tentacle
part of speech
noun (a tentacle, tentacles)
meaning for a pupil
1) A tentacle is a long, bendy arm-like part on some animals, such as octopuses, squids and jellyfish, used for feeling, grabbing, moving or stinging. tree →
2) (figurative) The «tentacles» of something are the ways it reaches into many places: «the tentacles of the gang». tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons tentacles come up in sea habitats and adaptations: jellyfish and sea anemones sting prey with their tentacles; an octopus has eight arms with suckers (scientists call octopus limbs «arms» and squid have two longer «tentacles»). In safety lessons at the beach, pupils learn not to touch jellyfish, even dead ones, because the tentacles can still sting.
examples
- The jellyfish trailed long, stinging tentacles. tree →
- The octopus wrapped its arms around the crab. tree →
- A squid catches food with its two long tentacles. tree →
- Sea anemones wave their tentacles to catch tiny fish. tree →
- Do not touch a jellyfish on the beach — its tentacles can still sting. tree →
- Snails have tentacles on their heads with eyes at the tips. tree →
- The monster in the story reached out with slimy tentacles. tree →
note
Plural «tentacles». Spelling: «-acle», like «miracle». Trap: scientists say an octopus has eight arms, not tentacles; squids have eight arms plus two tentacles. In everyday talk people call all of them tentacles.
In the corpora
- A squid has 8 arms and 2 longer tentacles, and like an octopus it has 3 hearts.
- An octopus has eight arms with suckers all along them, and scientists call them arms, not tentacles.
- A squid or cuttlefish has eight arms plus two longer tentacles with suckers only on their wide tips, ten limbs in all.
- Clownfish really do live inside sea anemones, whose waving tentacles are full of stings that kill other small fish.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «tentacle» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.