Komodo dragon
5
4.4
- noun
- /kəˈmoʊdoʊ ˈdræɡən/
:
dragón de Komodo
- The Komodo dragon hunts by using its keen sense of smell to track down prey.
Examples
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Visitors to Indonesia often hope to see a Komodo dragon in its natural habitat.
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The Komodo dragon is the largest lizard in the world, growing up to 10 feet long.
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Look at that Komodo dragon!
Blog text (2) -
The Komodo dragon, largest of the monitors, has been known to kill water buffalo.
Academic text (1995) -
The boys were most interested in Komodo dragons and least interested in camels.
Academic text (2014) -
The Komodo dragon, the world's largest lizard, has more than fifteen infectious agents suspended in its saliva.
Academic text (2004) -
Big lizards, like the five-foot Komodo dragons of Indonesia, have been clocked at thirty miles an hour, fast enough to run down a man.
Fiction book (1990)
Synonyms
A very large lizard from Indonesian islands that can grow up to three meters long
A very large lizard that lives on some Indonesian islands, for example the Komodo dragon
A very large lizard from Indonesian islands, like the Komodo dragon
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
Komodo + dragon
The compound is built from a place name + creature, so a learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer it refers to a creature associated with Komodo (place + animal), giving partial access to the meaning. However, 'dragon' usually denotes a mythical animal and the specific encyclopedic fact that the Komodo dragon is a very large lizard requires world knowledge, so the exact sense is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Komodo dragon comes from Komodo Island in Indonesia, where people found a very large, fierce lizard. They called it a 'dragon' because it looked so big and scary, so the name now means a very large lizard.