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# beetle

«beetle» in Mova's school dictionary: **an insect with a hard shiny back** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (beetle, beetles); verb (beetle off — hurry away, rare)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A beetle is an insect with a hard shiny back. Like all insects it has 6 legs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#m1)

2) The hard back is really a pair of wing cases that cover thin wings, so most beetles can fly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#m2)

3) There are more kinds of beetle than of any other animal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In school maths: a counted animal with 6 legs, used in legs puzzles (beetles and spiders). In science: insects have 6 legs, 3 body parts and often wings; ladybirds (ladybugs) are beetles; beetles help break down dead plants. In stories and everyday life: finding beetles under logs, a bug hunt. Phrases: «a dung beetle», «a stag beetle», «busy as a beetle».

### examples

- A beetle has 6 legs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x1)
- Spiders and beetles have 54 legs in all. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x2)
- Tom found 7 beetles in the garden. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x3)
- How many legs do 4 beetles have? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x4)
- A ladybird is a kind of beetle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x5)
- We went on a bug hunt and found three beetles under a log. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x6)
- The dung beetle rolls a ball of dung. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x7)
- The beetle opened its shell and flew away. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x8)
- The Beetle smote upon the drum. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/#x9)

### note

Countable: «a beetle». A beetle is an insect; a spider is not. Maths: hides «6 legs each». Trap: the number 6 is not written; a spider has 8, a beetle 6.

### In the corpora

- [The bombardier beetle mixes two chemicals in its body to make a spray of about 100 degrees that it shoots from its tail end.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/37-butterflies-beetles-flies-mosquitoes-grasshoppers/11/)
- [No real animal breathes fire; the bombardier beetle sprays a nearly boiling chemical mix from a tough chamber at attackers.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/146-shrek-s-dragon-real-dragons-and-lizards/5/)
- [When researchers sprayed a harmless mist into single canopy trees, beetles of hundreds of kinds fell out, many never named.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/156-the-amazon-canopy/15/)
- [Beetles are insects with six legs; beetles that live under stones help to break down dead plants and animals.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/220-spiders-and-other-minibeasts-under-logs-and-stones/14/)
- [Roughly one animal kind in four is a beetle.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/306-beetles-the-biggest-group-of-animals-on-earth-wing-cases-and-six-legs/1/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «beetle» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/beetle/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.