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bearded seal

bearded seal

1 6.8
A medium-sized Arctic animal that lives in the sea with long whiskers used to find food under ice
  • noun
  • /ˈbɪrdɪd siːl/
  • US
translation icon : foca barbada
  • Pinniped sightings included 46 bearded seals, 32 ringed seals, 559 walruses, and 3 unidentified pinnipeds.

Examples

  • And yet polar bears, ringed seals, and bearded seals survived as species.

    Blog text (9)
  • Walrus, bearded seal, ringed seal, narwhal, beluga and caribou, and fish.

  • Bearded seals predominated in the west (74%) and spotted seals in the east (69%); ribbon seals made up about 12% overall and ringed seals about 4%.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Polar bears primarily hunt for bearded seals in the Arctic waters during the winter.

  • The bearded seal can often be seen lounging on the ice in the Arctic Ocean.

  • Scientists study the bearded seal to understand its role in the Arctic ecosystem.

Synonyms

seal
vsbearded seal
108 1.0

A large sea mammal with flippers that lives near cold coasts

is the specific Arctic species with bristles on its muzzle
Erignathus barbatus
vsbearded seal
  • Specialized
9.9

A bearded seal from Arctic waters with thick whiskers on its face

is the common name used in everyday language
square flipper
vsbearded seal
  • Archaic
9.9

A medium-sized Arctic seal with whiskers on each side of its nose, also called the bearded seal

is the standard common name rather than this alternative
Erignathus
vsbearded seal
  • Specialized
9.9

A large Arctic seal with thick whiskers that lives on sea ice

is the single species, not the broader genus

Surface Forms

bearded seal singular
bearded seals plural

Morphology

bearded + seal

This is a straightforward adjective + noun compound where the meaning (a seal that is bearded or has prominent whiskers) is directly and compositionally derived from 'bearded' and 'seal'. Such descriptive compounds are cross-linguistically common and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

The noun bearded seal comes from the long whiskers on each side of the animal's face that look like a beard, so people called it a bearded seal. That's why the name now means this seal that lives in the Arctic.