brush-tailed phalanger
- noun
- Australian
:
phalanger de cola cepillo
- The brush-tailed phalanger is a familiar sight in urban gardens across Australia.
Examples
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At night, the brush-tailed phalanger searches for leaves and fruit in the treetops.
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Conservationists are studying the habits of the brush-tailed phalanger to protect native forests.
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The brush-tailed phalanger is a nocturnal marsupial.
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Have you ever seen a brush-tailed phalanger in the wild?
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At night, the brush-tailed phalanger searches for leaves and fruit in the treetops.
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The brush-tailed phalanger is a familiar sight in urban gardens across Australia.
-
Conservationists are studying the habits of the brush-tailed phalanger to protect native forests.
Synonyms
54
1.9
A small furry animal with a long tail that lives in trees and carries babies in a pouch
A type of possum with a bushy tail that lives in forests and cities in Australia
Surface Forms
Morphology
brush-tailed + phalanger
The compound is compositionally built: 'brush-tailed' denotes having a bushy (brush-like) tail and 'phalanger' names a marsupial, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it is a marsupial with a bushy tail. This follows regular English adjective+noun morphology and is cross-linguistically transparent, so the overall meaning is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
The name brush-tailed phalanger comes from how the animal looks: brush-tailed points to its thick, bushy tail that looks like a small brush, and phalanger is an old name for a tree-living 'pouch animal'. So the name helps you remember it is a 'pouch animal' that lives in trees and has a bushy tail.