mole rat
3
4.7
- noun
- /moʊl ræt/
:
rata topo
- Researchers observed the behavior of naked mole rats in their natural habitat to understand their social structures.
- naked mole rat
- blind mole rat
Do you know what naked mole rats look like?
- Do you know what naked mole rats look like?
- I meant naked mole rat looks like a dirty little peen.
- You are full haired mole rat, mole.
- It doesn't age naked mole rat doesn't age.
Examples
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Hence, despite the mole rat's atrophied vision, selection continues to control mutations in the two opsin genes, apparently to maintain the animal's biological clock.
Academic text (2006) -
Photo: A naked mole rat mother holds hands with her pup in their home/display at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.
Academic text (1994) -
The Pacific Science Center staff believes that naked mole rats can offer us some good lessons.
Academic text (1994) -
The mole rat's eyes are small, buried under the skin, and covered by a layer of fur.
Academic text (2006) -
The eyes of the blind mole rat are covered with skin and fur, but the animal can distinguish external light intensity.
Academic text (2006) -
Still, the animal's retinas can detect light intensity, and so the blind mole rat can tell the time of day.
Academic text (2006) -
Ask yourself why the naked mole-rat mother allows 30 babies at once to grow inside her, feed on her every resource, and stretch her skin to the point of breaking.
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Both the blind mole rat (above left), which lives underground, and the owl monkey (above right), which is nocturnal, are monochromats.
Academic text (2006) -
The naked mole rats dug complex tunnels beneath the ground to create their homes.
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In the wild, Damaraland mole rats are known for their cooperative living arrangements.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A small burrowing mammal from western Africa that lives in underground colonies
1
7.3
A small almost hairless African animal that lives underground in large groups like ants
A group of burrowing rodents like mole rats that live underground in Africa
A group of rodents that live underground in East Africa and includes the naked mole-rat
A group of burrowing rodents from southern Africa that live in sandy areas
A group of blind mole rats that live underground in eastern Europe and western Asia
A group of small mammals like mole-rats that live underground
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'mole rat' is transparently built from 'mole' and 'rat' and denotes a rat-like rodent with mole-like habits or appearance, so its meaning can be readily inferred from the constituents. This type of noun-noun compounding to describe an animal type is common in English and cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Mole rat comes from how the animal looks and lives: it looks like a mole and is a small rodent like a rat, so people joined the two words to show it digs and lives underground. That's why 'mole rat' today means a burrowing rodent that spends most of its life below ground.