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skink

skink

1 8.6
A small lizard with smooth shiny skin and short legs that lives in warm wet places
  • noun
  • /skɪŋk/
translation icon : esquincle
  • She carefully observed the shiny skink as it darted quickly across the moist ground.
  • lizards and skinks

No, skinks are like little gecko type things.

Examples

  • Sweet shining skink eggs.

  • Clipperton is home to only two kinds of terrestrial vertebrates: one skink species and one gecko.

    Academic text (1996)
  • So how do the Mountain skinks keep their babies safe?

  • No, skinks are like little gecko type things.

  • The twitching sometimes caused a concealed skink to reveal its location.

    Academic text (2003)
  • Fence lizards and skinks were running around and climbing trees.

    Academic text (1995)
  • The mud skinks are all squirming beneath the surface.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • The black-tailed monitor has a unique tactic to rustle up skinks, the small lizards on which it feeds.

    Academic text (2003)
  • While hiking in the tropical forest, I spotted a skink sunbathing on a rock.

  • The small skink was camouflaged among the leaves, blending perfectly into its environment.

Synonyms

lizard
vsskink
103 1.0

A small animal with scaly skin, four legs, and a long tail

is a specific small shiny type within that broader reptile group
scincid lizard
vsskink
  • Specialized
9.9

A small lizard with smooth shiny scales and short legs that often lives in moist places

is the common name for small shiny-bodied species in that family
scincid
vsskink
  • Specialized
9.9

A lizard with a long body, smooth shiny scales, and small legs

is the common name used for those family members in everyday speech

Compounds

A small lizard that lives on rocky mountain slopes in the southwestern United States and Mexico

8.6

A small lizard with smooth scales found in open areas of western North America

How Big

African monitor
  • South African
8.4
iguana
  • US
2 3.9
skink
1 8.6
gecko
17 2.9

Surface Forms

skink singular
skinks plural

Etymology

The word skink comes from an old Greek word skinkhos for a type of lizard, which moved into Latin and then into English. A helpful way to remember skink is to think of its smooth, shiny 'skin' that lets the lizard slip quickly through leaves, so the old name is still the word we use for these small, fast lizards.