tadpole
/ˈtædpoʊl/
tadpole noun: a young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
Noun
tadpole (plural tadpoles)
- A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
- The aquatic larva of any amphibian.
- salamander tadpole
- A type of cargo bike that has two wheels in front and one in back.
- A child's basic drawing of a human being, having a detailed head but only sticks for the body and limbs.
- A small child.
- Shouldn't you tadpoles be in bed?1970, Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Lone Woman, page 174
- An insignificant person.
- Woman's voice: You impudent imp! You tadpole! You shrimp!1900 August 4, The Geelong Advertiser, Victoria, page 6, column 7
- “[H]ere's this Tooralooral tadpole of a Mayor shovin' his nose into the business and arrestin' our Puddin' without rhyme or reason.”1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 142
tadpole meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu
tadpole in Hindi
- toad or frog larva
- बेंगची beṅgcī, मेंढक का बच्चा meṇḍhak kā baccā, टैडपोल ṭaiḍpol
tadpole in Tamil
- toad or frog larva
- தவளைக்குஞ்சு tavaḷaikkuñcu, தலைப்பிரட்டை talaippiraṭṭai, தவளைக்குட்டி tavaḷaikkuṭṭi
tadpole in Bengali
- toad or frog larva
- বেঙাচি beṅaci
tadpole in Telugu
- toad or frog larva
- తోకకప్ప tōkakappa
More languagesFewer languages
- tadpole in Malayalam
- വാൽമാക്രി vālmākri, ഉമ്പിളുന്ത umpiḷunta
- tadpole in Kannada
- ಗೊದಮೊಟ್ಟೆ, ಗೊದಮಟ್ಟೆ, ಗೊದಮೊಟ್ಟೆಮರಿ, ಮರಿಗಪ್ಪೆ
- tadpole in Assamese
- লালুকী laluki
- tadpole in Nepali
- चेपागाडा cepāgāḍā
- tadpole in Tagalog
- uluulo, butete, kitikiti
- tadpole in Arabic
- شُرْغُوف šurḡūf
- tadpole in Malay
- berudu, cebong
- tadpole in Indonesian
- berudu
- tadpole in Persian
- بچه قورباغه bačče-ye qurbâġe, کفچلیز kafčaliz, کفلیسک kaflisak
- tadpole in Thai
- ลูกอ๊อด lûuk-ɔ́ɔt
- tadpole in Vietnamese
- nòng nọc, nọc nọc, óc nóc
- tadpole in Myanmar
- ဖားလောင်း hpa:laung:, ဖားတစ်ပိုင်းငါးတစ်ပိုင်း hpa:tacpuing:nga:tacpuing:
Examples of tadpole in a sentence
- A frog spawns thousands of tadpoles every year.
- The tadpole changed into a frog.
- I had one delayed when I wasn’t refreshing its tadpole tea enough.
Synonyms of tadpole
Forms of tadpole
| plural | tadpoles |
|---|
Origin of tadpole
From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”).
Words formed from tadpole
Phrases with tadpole
Questions about tadpole
- What does tadpole mean?
- Tadpole means a young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
- What is tadpole in Hindi?
- Tadpole in Hindi is बेंगची (beṅgcī), मेंढक का बच्चा (meṇḍhak kā baccā), टैडपोल (ṭaiḍpol). See Tadpole meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is tadpole?
- Tadpole is a noun.
- How do you pronounce tadpole?
- Tadpole is pronounced /ˈtædpoʊl/.
- What is the plural of tadpole?
- The plural of tadpole is tadpoles.
Words near tadpole in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tadpole (page history and authors); ഉമ്പിളുന്ത (Malayalam) (page history and authors); tadpole (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tadpole.wav.
Cite this entry: “tadpole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tadpole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.