termite
part of speech
noun (a termite, termites)
meaning for a pupil
A small, pale insect that lives in large groups called colonies, eats wood, and builds big nests or mounds. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons termites are social insects with a queen, workers and soldiers. Their mounds in Africa and Australia can be taller than a person and have clever air channels. In everyday life, termites can damage wooden houses, so people check for them. Phrases: «termite mound», «termite colony», «termite damage».
examples
- Termites live in huge colonies. tree →
- We saw tall termite mounds in Australia. tree →
- Termites ate the wooden steps of the old house. tree →
- A termite colony has a queen, workers and soldiers. tree →
- Some animals, like echidnas and aardvarks, eat termites. tree →
- The pest controller checked the house for termites. tree →
- Termite mounds stay cool inside because of air tunnels. tree →
note
Countable. Myth trap: termites are often called «white ants», but they are not ants; they are more closely related to cockroaches. Termites have six legs, like all insects.
In the corpora
- The didgeridoo comes from Aboriginal Australians of northern Australia, traditionally made from a branch hollowed by termites; skilled players use circular breathing.
- An echidna has no teeth and catches ants and termites with a long sticky tongue after breaking into their nests with strong claws.
- Wild chimpanzees make tools: they fish for termites with stripped twigs, crack nuts with stones and use leaves as sponges.
- Giant anteaters walk on their knuckles to protect long front claws, which rip open hard termite mounds and can fight off a jaguar.
- Hyenas look like dogs but are more closely related to cats and mongooses; the aardwolf is a small hyena that eats mostly termites.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «termite» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.