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# platypus

«platypus» in Mova's school dictionary: **an unusual animal from eastern Australia with a duck-like…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 4 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (platypus, platypuses)

### meaning for a pupil

A platypus is an unusual animal from eastern Australia with a duck-like bill, webbed feet, thick fur and a flat tail like a beaver's, which lays eggs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons the platypus is a mammal that lays eggs (a monotreme), like the echidna; the mother feeds the babies with milk. It hunts underwater with its eyes closed, finding food by sensing electricity with its bill. The male has a poisonous spur on its back legs. In geography it lives in rivers in eastern Australia and Tasmania. Phrases: duck-billed platypus.

### examples

- The platypus lives in Australia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x1)
- A platypus is a mammal that lays eggs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x2)
- The platypus has a bill like a duck. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x3)
- Platypuses hunt underwater with their eyes shut. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x4)
- The male platypus has a poisonous spur. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x5)
- When scientists first saw a platypus, they thought it was a joke. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/platypus/#x6)

### note

Plural: platypuses (not «platypi»). Trap for sorting tasks: it lays eggs but is still a mammal, because it has fur and feeds its young on milk. Not a bird, even with a bill.

### In the corpora

- [Around 1799 the naturalist George Shaw checked the first platypus skin for stitches, and egg-laying was finally proved only in 1884.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/43-platypus-and-echidna/10/)
- [A platypus has a broad flat tail, and a koala has only a tiny stump of a tail hidden in its fur.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/117-zoos-around-the-world-and-myths-put-right/9/)
- [The platypus of Australia is a mammal that lays eggs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/45-uk-ireland-canada-australia-nz/17/)
- [The platypus and the echidnas are mammals that lay eggs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/75-mammals-and-their-young/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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