marsupial mouse
- noun
- /mɑrˈsuːpiəl maʊs/
- Australian
:
ratón marsupial
- The marsupial mouse is a small mammal that hunts insects in the Australian bush.
Examples
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Studying the behavior of the marsupial mouse helps researchers understand the ecology of Australian wildlife.
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Nocturnal and endangered, a marsupial mouse thought to be extinct until recently.
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In the dark woods, the night began to stir with the sound of a marsupial mouse foraging for food.
Synonyms
A small animal like a mouse that carries its young in a pouch and eats insects
A small animal like a mouse that eats insects and carries its young in a pouch
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'marsupial' (a pouch-bearing mammal) + 'mouse' (small rodent) yields a small marsupial that resembles a mouse. This descriptive naming pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Marsupial mouse comes from the words marsupial and mouse; the animal looks like a tiny mouse but has a 'pouch' like a kangaroo. So the name shows it is 'not a true mouse' but a small pouch-bearing animal.
