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Glite Dictionary
great grey kangaroo

great grey kangaroo

7.8
A very large Australian animal that hops, has grey-brown fur, and is now rare in open woods
  • noun
  • Australian
translation icon : canguro gris grande
  • The great grey kangaroo once roamed freely across southern Australia before its numbers declined.

Examples

  • Researchers documented the behavior of the endangered great grey kangaroo in the open woodlands.

  • I saw a great grey kangaroo at the wildlife park.

  • Many wildlife books describe the impressive leap of the great grey kangaroo.

  • The great grey kangaroo is native to Australia.

  • Researchers documented the behavior of the endangered great grey kangaroo in the open woodlands.

  • The great grey kangaroo once roamed freely across southern Australia before its numbers declined.

  • I saw a great grey kangaroo at the wildlife park.

Synonyms

giant kangaroo
vsgreat grey kangaroo
  • Australian
3.4

A very large Australian kangaroo that once lived in open woods

emphasizes that it is now rare despite former abundance
Macropus giganteus
vsgreat grey kangaroo
  • Specialized
9.6

A large grey-brown kangaroo from eastern Australia

describes the same animal but stresses habitat and current rarity

Surface Forms

great grey kangaroo singular
great grey kangaroos plural

Morphology

great + gray + kangaroo

The phrase is a straightforward descriptive compound: 'great' (very large) + 'grey' (colour) + 'kangaroo' (the animal) yields the meaning 'a very large, grey kangaroo' which a B1 learner who knows the constituents can derive. Adjective + adjective + noun patterns for species or types are cross-linguistically common, so the referent is transparently compositional rather than idiomatic.

Etymology

Great grey kangaroo likely comes from early visitors who borrowed the local word kangaroo and then added simple descriptions. They called this species great and grey because it is large and grey, so the name points to a 'large grey kangaroo'.