amplexus
amplexus noun: a form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs as part of the mating process.
Noun
amplexus (uncountable)
- A form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs as part of the mating process.
- Finally, we came upon a pair of Panamanian robber frogs locked in amplexus—the amphibian version of sex.2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 1, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company
- In the middle, just below the surface, a male and a female were locked in amplexus, a coupling that can last for days as the male waits to fertilise the eggs when they are laid.2018 March 29, Ed Douglas, “Country diary: tantric embraces and nuptial pads – the secrets of frog sex revealed”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- amplection//amplexion, amplexation
- In vernation, the situation where two sides of one leaf overlap the two sides of the one above it.
Synonyms of amplexus
- amplection//amplexion
- amplexation
Origin of amplexus
Unadapted borrowing from Latin amplexus (“embrace”).
Words that rhyme with amplexus
Questions about amplexus
- What does amplexus mean?
- Amplexus means a form of pseudocopulation, found chiefly in amphibians and horseshoe crabs, in which a male grasps a female with his front legs as part of the mating process.
- What part of speech is amplexus?
- Amplexus is a noun.
Words near amplexus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: amplexus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “amplexus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/amplexus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.