skink
- noun
- /skɪŋk/
- 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.
- No, skinks are like little gecko type things.
Examples
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Sweet shining skink eggs.
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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?
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No, skinks are like little gecko type things.
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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.
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The small skink was camouflaged among the leaves, blending perfectly into its environment.
Synonyms
A small animal with scaly skin, four legs, and a long tail
A small lizard with smooth shiny scales and short legs that often lives in moist places
A lizard with a long body, smooth shiny scales, and small legs
Compounds
A small lizard that lives on rocky mountain slopes in the southwestern United States and Mexico
How Big
Surface Forms
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.