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Glite Dictionary
false vampire

false vampire

9.9
A large bat that eats insects at night, not blood
  • noun
  • /fɔls ˈvæmpaɪr/
translation icon : murciélago falso vampiro
  • The false vampire roosts in caves and old buildings, hunting insects at night.

Examples

  • Despite its name, the false vampire does not drink blood.

  • Researchers studied several false vampire colonies to understand their feeding behavior.

  • The false vampire bat is often misunderstood.

  • Many people think the false vampire bat drinks blood.

  • Despite its name, the false vampire does not drink blood; instead, it feeds on insects.

  • The false vampire roosts in caves and old buildings, where it hunts for insects during the night.

  • Researchers studied the false vampire to learn more about its feeding behavior on insects.

Synonyms

false vampire bat
vsfalse vampire
8.9

A bat that eats insects instead of drinking blood

is the identical meaning but uses the shorter form of the name

Antonyms

true vampire bat
  • Specialized
9.2

A bat from tropical America that drinks the blood of animals like cows and birds

Surface Forms

false vampire singular
false vampires plural

Morphology

false + vampire

The meaning — something resembling but not a genuine vampire — follows directly from 'false' (not genuine) + 'vampire' (blood‑sucking creature); a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes an entity mistakenly thought to be a vampire (e.g., a bat). The 'false X' naming pattern is compositional and cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner would generally be able to derive the intended sense.

Etymology

False vampire may come from early observers who saw large bats and thought they were vampires that 'drink blood', but the word false shows they were not real vampires. That's why false vampire today means a bat that looks like a vampire but actually eats insects.