koala bear
2
1.0
- noun
- /koʊˈɑːlə bɛr/
- Australian
:
koala
- While visiting Australia, we saw a koala bear sleeping in a eucalyptus tree.
Examples
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The koala bear is known for its fluffy ears and slow movements in the treetops.
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The most appealing creatures by far were the koala bears.
Fiction book (1991) -
This time they bought out a little koala bear and perhaps someone would like to buy that.
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Who is that sweet koala bear she loves?
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I really want them to meet my sweet, sweet, little koala bear.
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Oh look, Papa, a white koala bear.
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That little koala bear, he's so cute.
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You've got to let people know the koala bear is your emblem.
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It's a koala bear.
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That's a koala bear.
Synonyms
40
1.0
A slow animal from Australia that lives in trees and eats eucalyptus leaves
A tree-dwelling Australian animal that eats eucalyptus leaves
A small Australian animal that lives in trees, carries babies in a pouch, and eats eucalyptus leaves
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'koala bear' is compositionally transparent: a learner who knows 'koala' and 'bear' can readily infer it refers to the animal (a koala), with 'bear' functioning as an animal-classifier. Although 'bear' is taxonomically inaccurate (koalas are not true bears), this factual nuance does not prevent a B1 learner from deriving the intended referent from the constituents.
Etymology
Koala bear: The name koala bear comes from early settlers who thought the soft, round-faced animal looked like a small bear in the trees, so they added 'bear' to koala. One popular story says koala comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'no drink' because koalas get most of their water from eucalyptus leaves, so today koala bear means the tree-living marsupial often mistakenly called a 'bear'.