water-milfoil family
- noun
- Specialized
:
familia de milfoiles
- The water-milfoil family includes various aquatic plants that thrive in shallow waters.
Examples
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Some invasive species in the water-milfoil family can disrupt local aquatic ecosystems.
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Members of the water-milfoil family are commonly found in freshwater habitats around the world.
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The botanist gave a lecture about the diversity of the water-milfoil family.
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The water-milfoil family includes various aquatic plants.
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Many species in the water-milfoil family thrive in freshwater.
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Members of the water-milfoil family are commonly found in freshwater habitats around the world.
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Some invasive species in the water-milfoil family can disrupt local aquatic ecosystems.
Synonyms
A family of flowering plants that live in water or wet places like water milfoil
A family of flowering plants that live in water or marshes, like water milfoils
Surface Forms
Morphology
water-milfoil + family
The noun phrase follows the productive and cross-linguistic pattern 'X family' meaning 'the family/grouping of X', so a learner who knows 'water-milfoil' (an aquatic milfoil plant) and 'family' (a taxonomic grouping) can infer it denotes the plant family. Although the botanical term is specialized, the compositional structure is transparent and the overall meaning is directly derivable from the constituents.
Etymology
Water-milfoil family The noun water-milfoil family comes from how the plants look: water shows they live in water and milfoil means 'many thin leaves' because the plants have very fine, feathery leaves under the water, so the name refers to a 'family' or group of water plants with those many thin leaves.
