tuatara
Syllables: tu·a·ta·ra/tuːəˈtɑːɹə/
tuatara noun: a reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia.
Noun
tuatara (plural tuataras or tuatara)
- A reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia.
- In New Zealand the dinosaurs had perished 65 million years before, as they had elsewhere on the globe; but the sphenodons or tuataras who had been their contemporaries from Jurassic times persisted, in New Zealand but nowhere else, for reasons that remain obscure.2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 4
tuatara meaning in Assamese
tuatara in Assamese
- reptile
- টুৱাটাৰা tuatara
Forms of tuatara
| plural | tuataras |
|---|---|
| plural | tuatara |
Origin of tuatara
Borrowed from Māori tuatara.
Questions about tuatara
- What does tuatara mean?
- Tuatara means a reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia.
- What is tuatara in Assamese?
- Tuatara in Assamese is টুৱাটাৰা (tuatara). See Tuatara meaning in Assamese.
- What part of speech is tuatara?
- Tuatara is a noun.
- How do you pronounce tuatara?
- Tuatara is pronounced /tuːəˈtɑːɹə/.
- What is the plural of tuatara?
- The plural of tuatara is tuataras.
Words near tuatara in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tuatara (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-tuatara.wav.
Cite this entry: “tuatara.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tuatara. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.