Thomson's gazelle
1
6.7
- noun
- /ˈtɑːm.sənz ɡəˈzɛl/
:
gacela de Thomson
- While driving through the national park, we were thrilled to see a herd of Thomson's gazelles bounding gracefully across the grasslands.
- Thomson's gazelle
Examples
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On the savannah, a group of Thomson's gazelles grazed peacefully, their slender bodies easily recognizable by the black stripes on their sides.
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A chase can come after some carefully planned stalking, or it can happen abruptly if a sequestered baby Thomson's gazelle chooses to run from the pathway of an advancing cat.
Academic text (2009) -
A pair of baboons killed a Thomson's gazelle and ate it.
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There were many Thomson's gazelles ahead on the green plain, switching their tails as they fed.
Fiction book (2000) -
The Thomson's gazelles she favours are almost as fast and very agile.
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One witness reported seeing a cheetah pursuing a Thomson's gazelle through the grounds before downing it several yards.
Academic text (2009) -
The quick movements of the Thomson's gazelle help it evade predators on the open plains of East Africa.
Synonyms
29
4.1
A small, fast antelope with long thin legs and bright eyes that moves gracefully
A small gazelle from East Africa with a black stripe on its side
Surface Forms
Morphology
Thomson's + gazelle
This is a possessive proper-name + noun construction: a B1 learner who knows 'gazelle' and recognizes 'Thomson' as a name will infer it denotes a kind or species of gazelle. While specific biological details (range, size, stripe) are not deducible, the core meaning 'a gazelle associated with Thomson / a type of gazelle' is directly derivable and cross-linguistically common.
Etymology
Thomson's gazelle comes from the Scottish explorer Thomson, who collected and sent the first animals to Europe. So the name points to the person Thomson and identifies this small East African 'gazelle' species today.