Definition of armadillo in English:
armadillo
nounPlural armadillos ˌɑːməˈdɪləʊˌɑrməˈdɪloʊ
A nocturnal insectivorous mammal that has large claws for digging and a body covered in bony plates. Armadillos are native to Central and South America and one kind is spreading into the southern US.
Family Dasypodidae, order Xenarthra (or Edentata): several genera
- In Florida's Marion County, Interstate 75 cuts right through a state-long swath of greenway that's habitat for bobcats, opossums, and armadillos.
- Peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, armadillos, sloths, coatis, and others are around but hard to see.
- Raccoons, bob cats and armadillos roam the land and gentle manatees (sea cows) swim in the waters of the Indian River.
- The sloths and armadillos are rather odd mammals characteristic of South America.
- In South America, a group known as the Xenarthrans developed, today represented by the anteaters, sloths and armadillos.
- Several groups of xenarthrans successfully crossed the Central American land bridge to North America when it formed in the Pliocene; these included a number of kinds of ground sloths and armadillos.
- The living armadillos of South America bore a striking resemblance to fossil glyptodonts, extinct armored mammals whose fossils occurred in the same area.
- Originally known only from central and southern Texas, 9-banded armadillos have recently been found as far north as Nebraska.
- The land bridge allowed the South American armadillo, porcupine, opossum, and ground sloths to colonize the north, as well as the unique South American notoungulates.
- As floodwaters turned hilltops into islands, a key group of animals - predators such as jaguars, harpy eagles, and armadillos - disappeared from the islands.
- While drifting down the river, it is not uncommon to see all types of wildlife like goats, deer, armadillos, foxes and even a rare glimpse of a Bald Eagle.
- The armadillo, ground sloth, opposums, and phorusrhacid birds were among the animals that migrated North from South America.
- Anteaters, pangolins, and some armadillos use hook-and-pull digging with the enlarged claw of a single, enlarged manual digit to open termite or ant nests made of hard dirt.
- ‘Some looked like reptilian armadillos or cats, and others looked like little dinosaurs,’ Nesbitt said.
- Accessible only by boat, the island provides a natural habitat for a diverse community of wildlife including alligators, fallow deer, dolphins, river otters, and armadillos.
- Every time he came up to our place for a visit, all I would hear was ‘my armadillo this’ and ‘my armadillo that.’
- Living xenarthrans are represented by three morphologically distinct lineages: armored armadillos, toothless anteaters, and phyllophagous tree-sloths.
- The island is a natural habitat for abundant wildlife, with alligators (look for them lazing in the sun in Myrtle Pond), fallow deer, river otter, and armadillos.
- South America was also home to living species of armadillos and sloths.
- The placental mammals include such diverse forms as whales, bats, elephants, shrews, and armadillos.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Spanish, diminutive of armado 'armed man', from Latin armatus, past participle of armare 'to arm'.
Rhymes
billow, cigarillo, Murillo, Negrillo, peccadillo, pillow, tamarillo, Utrillo, willow
Definition of armadillo in US English:
armadillo
nounˌɑrməˈdɪloʊˌärməˈdilō
A nocturnal omnivorous mammal that has large claws for digging and a body covered in bony plates. Armadillos are native to the south central US and Central and South America.
Family Dasypodidae, order Xenarthra (or Edentata): several genera and species, including the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), which has spread into the southern US
- Every time he came up to our place for a visit, all I would hear was ‘my armadillo this’ and ‘my armadillo that.’
- The sloths and armadillos are rather odd mammals characteristic of South America.
- The placental mammals include such diverse forms as whales, bats, elephants, shrews, and armadillos.
- Accessible only by boat, the island provides a natural habitat for a diverse community of wildlife including alligators, fallow deer, dolphins, river otters, and armadillos.
- Anteaters, pangolins, and some armadillos use hook-and-pull digging with the enlarged claw of a single, enlarged manual digit to open termite or ant nests made of hard dirt.
- Peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, armadillos, sloths, coatis, and others are around but hard to see.
- In South America, a group known as the Xenarthrans developed, today represented by the anteaters, sloths and armadillos.
- The island is a natural habitat for abundant wildlife, with alligators (look for them lazing in the sun in Myrtle Pond), fallow deer, river otter, and armadillos.
- The land bridge allowed the South American armadillo, porcupine, opossum, and ground sloths to colonize the north, as well as the unique South American notoungulates.
- Living xenarthrans are represented by three morphologically distinct lineages: armored armadillos, toothless anteaters, and phyllophagous tree-sloths.
- As floodwaters turned hilltops into islands, a key group of animals - predators such as jaguars, harpy eagles, and armadillos - disappeared from the islands.
- The living armadillos of South America bore a striking resemblance to fossil glyptodonts, extinct armored mammals whose fossils occurred in the same area.
- In Florida's Marion County, Interstate 75 cuts right through a state-long swath of greenway that's habitat for bobcats, opossums, and armadillos.
- South America was also home to living species of armadillos and sloths.
- The armadillo, ground sloth, opposums, and phorusrhacid birds were among the animals that migrated North from South America.
- While drifting down the river, it is not uncommon to see all types of wildlife like goats, deer, armadillos, foxes and even a rare glimpse of a Bald Eagle.
- Raccoons, bob cats and armadillos roam the land and gentle manatees (sea cows) swim in the waters of the Indian River.
- ‘Some looked like reptilian armadillos or cats, and others looked like little dinosaurs,’ Nesbitt said.
- Originally known only from central and southern Texas, 9-banded armadillos have recently been found as far north as Nebraska.
- Several groups of xenarthrans successfully crossed the Central American land bridge to North America when it formed in the Pliocene; these included a number of kinds of ground sloths and armadillos.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Spanish, diminutive of armado ‘armed man’, from Latin armatus, past participle of armare ‘to arm’.