naked mole rat
1
7.3
- noun
- /ˈneɪ.kɪd moʊl ræt/
:
rata topo desnuda
- It doesn't age naked mole rat doesn't age.
Do you know what naked mole rats look like?
- Do you know what naked mole rats look like?
- It doesn't age naked mole rat doesn't age.
Examples
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Researchers observed that naked mole rats display eusocial behavior, similar to that of some insects.
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The Pacific Science Center staff believes that naked mole rats can offer us some good lessons.
Academic text (1994) -
Multiple rolls, naked mole rats stuck in plumbing, things of that sort.
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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) -
A good example of the predicted association between high relatedness and high skew comes from the eusocial naked mole-rat, Heterocephalus glaber.
Academic text (1999) -
Homosexuality, however, could have enhanced the inclusive fitness of kinship groups, as do the sterile castes within naked mole rat and some insect populations.
Academic text (1999) -
The naked mole rat, known for its unusual appearance, lives in complex tunnel systems beneath the arid ground of East Africa.
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In the wild, a naked mole rat colony can consist of many individuals working together to care for the young.
Synonyms
A small African animal like a hairless rat that lives in large underground groups
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'naked' (hairless) modifies the animal terms 'mole' and 'rat', so a learner who knows those words can infer it is a hairless, mole-/rat-like burrowing rodent. Although it names a specific species, the noun phrase follows transparent modifier+noun composition common across languages, making the sense predictable to B1 learners.
Etymology
The name naked mole rat describes a small animal that lives under the ground and looks almost without fur. The word naked points to its 'hairless' skin, mole to its life in 'tunnels' underground, and rat to being a 'rat-like' animal, so the name simply describes this unusual little animal.