horseshoe bat
- noun
- /ˈhɔrʃuː bæt/
- greater horseshoe bat
And so let's just say that the Texas horseshoe bats only exist in Texas.
- And so let's just say that the Texas horseshoe bats only exist in Texas.
Examples
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And so let's just say that the Texas horseshoe bats only exist in Texas.
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The greater horseshoe bat uses its unique nose to help echolocate and find food in the dark.
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Scientists studied the behavior of the horseshoe bat to understand how its nose shape aids in navigating through caves.
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Due to its distinctive appearance, the horseshoe bat is often recognized by its horseshoe-shaped fold of skin on its snout.
Synonyms
Bats with a horseshoe-shaped fold of skin on the nose that use sound to find things
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is compositionally built: 'horseshoe' describes a U-shaped form and 'bat' names the animal, so the phrase straightforwardly denotes a bat with a horseshoe-shaped feature. This shape-descriptive compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern, making the meaning easily inferable for a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The name horseshoe bat comes from a fold of skin on the bat's nose that looks like a small horseshoe. That strange nose shape helps the animal find its way and catch insects, so the 'horseshoe' part became the simple way to identify this kind of bat.