Tasmanian wolf
- noun
- /ˌtæzˈmeɪniən wʊlf/
- Australian
:
lobo de Tasmania
- The Tasmanian wolf, with its distinctive stripes, was once a native predator in Tasmania.
Examples
-
But let's recall, for a moment, the Tasmanian wolf, who was a wolf with a pouch and capable of bearing young as the kangaroo does.
Fiction book (1999) -
In fact, if intelligent life was everywhere, we'd probably have gone the way of the Tasmanian wolf several million years ago.
Blog text (5) -
Many people are fascinated by the Tasmanian wolf, a marsupial that looked like a dog.
-
Conservationists hope to learn more about the Tasmanian wolf, perhaps even to bring it back from extinction.
Synonyms
1
9.5
A doglike meat-eating animal from Tasmania with stripes and a pouch, believed extinct since the 20th century
1
9.9
A doglike animal from Tasmania with stripes on its back called the Tasmanian tiger and thought to be extinct
A probably extinct doglike animal from Tasmania with a pouch and stripes called the Tasmanian tiger
A group of meat-eating pouched mammals that includes the extinct Tasmanian tiger
A group of mammals that eat meat and carry their young in a pouch, including the extinct Tasmanian wolf
Surface Forms
Morphology
Tasmanian + wolf
The phrase combines a demonym/adjective 'Tasmanian' with the noun 'wolf', so a B1 learner who knows both words would plausibly infer a wolf-like animal from Tasmania. However, the specific facts—that the animal is actually a marsupial called the thylacine and is likely extinct—are encyclopedic and not derivable from the constituents, making the overall meaning only partially predictable.
Etymology
The name Tasmanian wolf comes from early European settlers who named the animal Tasmanian for its island home and wolf because it looked like a small wild dog, and scientists later called it 'thylacine'. So the name helps you remember it was a rare, meat-eating marsupial from Tasmania that is now probably 'extinct'.