Potos flavus
- noun
- Specialized
- With its long tail, the Potos flavus skillfully moves through the rainforest canopy searching for fruit.
Examples
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The Potos flavus is more commonly known as the kinkajou and is native to Central and South America.
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Many zoos house a Potos flavus to educate visitors about rainforest biodiversity.
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The Potos flavus is often referred to as the kinkajou.
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Did you know that the Potos flavus has a prehensile tail?
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Many zoos house a Potos flavus to educate visitors about rainforest biodiversity.
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The Potos flavus is more commonly known as the kinkajou and is native to Central and South America.
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With its long tail, the Potos flavus skillfully moves through the rainforest canopy searching for fruit.
Synonyms
A small nocturnal animal related to raccoons from Central and South America with a long tail that can hold branches
An animal from tropical America that lives in trees and uses its long tail to hold branches while eating fruit
An animal that lives in trees, eats fruit, and has a long grasping tail
Surface Forms
Morphology
Potos + flavus
This is a Latin binomial (scientific name) rather than an English compositional phrase: knowing 'Potos' as a genus does not give an average B1 learner the species meaning, and 'flavus' is not a known English word (it is Latin and absent from the provided dictionary). Species names are language-specific labels and not transparently derived from English constituents, so the meaning cannot be predicted by learners who only know the listed parts.
Etymology
Potos flavus may come from a local name 'potos' for the animal and the Latin word flavus meaning 'yellow', referring to its golden fur. So the name creates a simple image: a 'yellow' mammal that lives in trees and uses its long tail to move among the branches.