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# millipede

«millipede» in Mova's school dictionary: **a small creature with a long body made of many segments…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a millipede, millipedes)

### meaning for a pupil

A millipede is a small creature with a long body made of many segments, with two pairs of legs on most segments, that lives in damp soil and leaf litter and eats dead plants. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons on minibeasts and habitats, millipedes are found under logs and stones; they are decomposers that break down dead leaves into soil. When frightened they curl into a spiral and may give off a smelly liquid. They are not insects. Phrases: a millipede curled up, minibeast hunt.

### examples

- We found a millipede under the old log. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x1)
- The millipede curled up into a tight spiral. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x2)
- Millipedes eat rotting leaves and help make soil. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x3)
- A millipede moves its legs in waves. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x4)
- Millipedes like dark, damp places. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x5)
- Despite its name, a millipede does not have a thousand legs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x6)
- We counted the millipede's legs with a magnifying glass. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x7)
- A millipede is slower than a centipede. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/millipede/#x8)

### note

Countable: a millipede, millipedes. «Milli-» means thousand and «-pede» means feet, but most millipedes have far fewer than a thousand legs (often under 400; one rare kind has over 1,000). Do not confuse with a centipede: centipedes have one pair of legs per segment, move fast, hunt other animals and can bite; millipedes have two pairs per segment, are slow and eat plants. Neither is an insect (insects have six legs).

### In the corpora

- [Despite their name, no centipede has exactly one hundred legs, and most millipedes have far fewer than a thousand.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/220-spiders-and-other-minibeasts-under-logs-and-stones/17/)
- [Millipedes have two pairs of legs on most body sections and centipedes have one pair, which is how you tell them apart.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/365-tiny-champions-the-strongest-beetle-the-highest-jumping-flea-and-the-leggiest-millipede/11/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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