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# tail

«tail» in Mova's school dictionary: **The part at the back end of an animal's body that sticks…** — 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 (a tail, tails); verb (tail, tails, tailed — to follow secretly)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The part at the back end of an animal's body that sticks out and can often move. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#m1)

2) The back part of something: the tail of a plane, the tail of a comet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#m2)

3) Tails: the side of a coin without the head picture. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#m3)

4) Verb: to follow someone closely and secretly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In science: animals use tails to balance (cats, squirrels), swim (fish), steer (birds), swat flies (cows, horses), hold on (monkeys), store fat; lizards can drop their tails to escape. In animal safety: a wagging tail does not always mean a dog is friendly; don't pull animals' tails. In maths and probability: heads or tails when you flip a coin — each has a one-in-two chance. Phrases: wag its tail, heads or tails, tail end, tail of a comet, tadpole tail.

### examples

- The dog wagged its tail. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x1)
- A cat uses its tail to balance. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x2)
- Heads or tails? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x3)
- A lizard can drop its tail to escape. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x4)
- Never pull an animal's tail. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x5)
- We sat at the tail of the plane. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x6)
- The comet had a long bright tail. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x7)
- Tadpoles lose their tails as they turn into frogs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x8)
- RABBIT LOST HIS FINE BUSHY TAIL [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tail/#x9)

### note

Countable: tails. Homophone: «tale» (a story) — «a tail» is on an animal, «a tale» is told. In probability: a fair coin lands on tails about half the time — but each flip is new, so tails is not «due» after many heads.

### In the corpora

- [A loose wide tail wag usually means a happy dog, but a stiff high wag can mean the dog is tense.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/24-wolves-and-dogs/13/)
- [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/)
- [Tadpoles hatch after about 1 to 3 weeks, breathe with gills and swim with a tail, and grow faster in warmer water.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/48-life-cycles-metamorphosis/5/)
- [Like all apes, orangutans, gibbons and bonobos have no tails.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/85-ape-house-orangutans-gibbons-bonobos/15/)
- [Ring-tailed lemurs sunbathe in the morning to warm up, and wild lemurs live only on Madagascar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/86-monkey-house-and-lemurs-of-madagascar/4/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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