Alces alces
- noun
- /ˈæl.sɪs ˈæl.sɪs/
- Specialized
:
alce
- Male Alces alces have distinctive broad, palmate antlers that they shed each year.
Examples
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The Alces alces is commonly found in boreal forests and northern regions.
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Researchers observed several Alces alces grazing near the edge of the wetlands.
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Look at that Alces alces!
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The Alces alces is often seen grazing near lakes.
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Male Alces alces have distinctive broad, palmate antlers that they shed each year.
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Researchers observed several Alces alces grazing near the edge of the wetlands.
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The Alces alces is commonly found in boreal forests and northern regions.
Synonyms
118
1.0
A large deer with wide flat antlers that lives in northern forests
8
1.2
A very large deer with broad, flat antlers that lives in Europe and Asia
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a Latin binomial (genus + species) rather than a conventional English collocation; the two identical constituents signal a species within the genus Alces. A learner who knows 'Alces' as the genus could infer it refers to that animal group (i.e. the moose/eurasian elk), but they would need some knowledge of taxonomic naming to map it reliably to the common name, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The scientific name Alces alces comes from an old word Alces people used for this large northern deer, and early scientists kept that name twice to show it is the main species. That's why Alces alces refers to the big deer with broad, flat antlers we call the 'moose' in North America and the 'elk' in Europe.