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tardigrade. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
tardigrade, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
tardigrade in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈtɑɹdɪˌɡɹeɪd/
- Rhymes: -eɪd
- Hyphenation: tar‧di‧grade
Etymology 1
From Latin tardigradus (“slowly stepping”), from tardus (“slow”) + gradior (“step, walk”).
Adjective
tardigrade (comparative more tardigrade, superlative most tardigrade)
- Sluggish; moving slowly.
1850, Joses Badcock, “Botany; or, Phytology”, in Poems, volume 1, page 67:Each tendril ending in a perfect claw, / Obeys the whole routine of Nature's law; / Transforms each sinus to a sylvan shade, / Though p'rhaps its force is rather tardigrade.
1863, George Eliot, Romola:He ran on into the piazza, but he quickly heard the tramp of feet behind him, for the other two prisoners had been released, and the soldiers were struggling and fighting their way after them, in such tardigrade fashion as their hoof-shaped shoes would allow—impeded, but not very resolutely attacked, by the people.
2001, Richard S. Conde, “The Metronome”, in Century One, →ISBN, page 92:In sorrow, its voice is tardigrade but loud, dragging time at a snail's pace before our eyes.
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
From translingual Tardigrada.
Noun
tardigrade (plural tardigrades)
- (zoology) A member of the animal phylum Tardigrada.
- Synonym: water bear
- A sloth, a neotropical mammal of suborder Folivora (syn. Tardigrada).
Hyponyms
Translations
References
French
Pronunciation
Noun
tardigrade m (plural tardigrades)
- tardigrade; water bear
Further reading
Italian
Adjective
tardigrade f pl
- feminine plural of tardigrado
Anagrams