amphibian
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
amphibian /amˈfɪbɪən/
▶noun Zoology a cold-blooded vertebrate animal of a class (Amphibia) that comprises the frogs, toads, newts, salamanders, and caecilians, distinguished by an aquatic gill-breathing larval stage followed by a terrestrial lung-breathing adult stage.
– origin C17 (in the sense ‘of dual or doubtful nature’): from mod. L. amphibium ‘an amphibian’, from Gk amphibion (noun use of amphibios ‘living both in water and on land’, from amphi ‘both’ + bios ‘life’).
'amphibian' also found in these Oxford entries:
aestivation
- amphi-
- amphiuma
- anuran
- caecilian
- frog
- herptile
- metamorphose
- metamorphosis
- newt
- salamander
- siren
- tadpole
- thorax
- toad
- urodele
