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Glite Dictionary
Colubridae

Colubridae

9.9
A large family of mostly harmless snakes that live worldwide
  • noun
  • /kəˈluːbərɪˌdeɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : Colubridae
  • The Colubridae family includes a wide variety of snake species worldwide.

Examples

  • Most common garden snakes in North America belong to the Colubridae family.

  • Unlike vipers, members of Colubridae are usually harmless to humans.

  • The Colubridae family includes many common snakes.

  • Many species in the Colubridae family are harmless.

  • The Colubridae family includes many harmless snakes, such as garter snakes and rat snakes.

  • In the Colubridae family, you can find a variety of species that inhabit diverse environments around the globe.

  • Most members of the Colubridae family are nonvenomous, making them safe to handle for most people.

Surface Forms

Colubridae singular
Colubridæ singular
Colubridae plural

Morphology

Colubridae = colubrid (semi-transparent) = colubrid + idae

Formed by adding the taxonomic family suffix '-idae' to 'colubrid'; the structure is regular within scientific nomenclature but the meaning is specialized and not obvious to average learners.

Etymology

Colubridae comes from the Latin word coluber, meaning 'snake', and the ending -idae, which names animal families. So Colubridae means the 'snake family', a helpful memory because it is the largest family of mostly harmless snakes.