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# turtle

«turtle» in Mova's school dictionary: **a reptile with a hard shell on its back that covers its…** — 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 turtle, turtles)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A turtle is a reptile with a hard shell on its back that covers its body; many turtles live in the sea or in rivers and ponds. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#m1)

2) In American English, turtle is often used for any animal with this kind of shell, including tortoises. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science, turtles are reptiles: they are cold-blooded, breathe air and lay eggs on land; sea turtles swim thousands of kilometres. In environment lessons, plastic bags hurt sea turtles because they look like jellyfish. Phrases: sea turtle, turtle shell, turn turtle (turn upside down).

### examples

- The sea turtle laid her eggs in the sand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x1)
- Turtles pull their heads into their shells. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x2)
- Baby turtles crawl to the sea at night. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x3)
- A turtle must come up to breathe air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x4)
- Plastic in the ocean harms turtles. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x5)
- Our class pet is a turtle called Speedy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x6)
- The boat turned turtle in the storm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x7)
- Turtles have no teeth but a sharp beak. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x8)
- The movement, gentle though it was, woke the turtle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/turtle/#x9)

### note

Countable. In the UK and Australia, turtle usually means one that lives in water, and tortoise one that lives on land; Americans may call both turtles. A turtle cannot climb out of its shell: the shell is part of its skeleton.

### In the corpora

- [Many female sea turtles come back to lay eggs on the beach where they hatched; scientists think they remember its magnetic signature.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/31-turtles-and-tortoises/14/)
- [The alligator snapping turtle lures fish with a pink worm-shaped flap on its tongue and then snaps its jaws shut.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/31-turtles-and-tortoises/16/)
- [Sea turtles have lived in the oceans since the time of the dinosaurs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/133-finding-nemo-dory-turtles-and-the-reef/8/)
- [Sea turtles cannot pull their heads or flippers into their shells, because their streamlined swimming shells have no room inside.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/133-finding-nemo-dory-turtles-and-the-reef/11/)
- [Sea turtles eat jellyfish, and floating plastic bags look like jellyfish, so turtles sometimes swallow plastic, which can block their stomachs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/133-finding-nemo-dory-turtles-and-the-reef/12/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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