The Giant Panda

Gillian A.
14 words 28 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. classify
    arrange or order by categories
    After several scientific research studies the panda has been officially classified as a bear.
  2. confirm
    strengthen
    The spectacled bear of South America has been confirmed as the closest living relative of the giant panda.
  3. characteristic
    typical or distinctive
    The giant panda shares many physical characteristics with the red panda.
  4. evolve
    undergo development
    Both have evolved to feed on bamboo, grasping and eating it in the same way, with similar teeth and forepaws.
  5. distinctive
    of a feature that helps to identify a person or thing
    They also both have a distinctive cry which they use to communicate with others in their group.
  6. contradict
    prove negative; show to be false
    The first research studies linked the giant panda with bears, but in 1991 further tests contradicted these findings and placed it in the racoon family.
  7. predator
    any animal that lives by preying on other animals
    The panda belongs to the order Carnivora, a group of meat eating predators that evolved some 57 million years ago.
  8. carnivore
    a terrestrial or aquatic flesh-eating mammal
    The giant panda eats mainly bamboo but strangely it is physically designed as a carnivore and it has no special adaptation for digesting cellulose, the main constituent of plant cell walls.
  9. constituent
    one of the individual parts making up a composite entity
    The giant panda eats mainly bamboo but strangely it is physically designed as a carnivore and it has no special adaptation for digesting cellulose, the main constituent of plant cell walls.
  10. scavenge
    clean refuse from
    Occasionally, the giant panda will supplement its bamboo diet with meat which it scavenges.
  11. adept
    having or showing knowledge and skill and aptitude
    The giant panda is not so adept at climbing trees as the spectacled bear, which has to spend most of its life foraging for plants and fruits which grow in trees.
  12. forage
    collect or look around for, as food
    The giant panda is not so adept at climbing trees as the spectacled bear, which has to spend most of its life foraging for plants and fruits which grow in trees.
  13. encounter
    come together
    The distinctive colouring of the giant panda may help prevent close encounters with other pandas and the eye patches make the panda’s small, dark eyes look much bigger, making the stare more powerful.
  14. avert
    turn away or aside
    To show lack of aggressive intention, a panda will avert its head, cover its eye patches with its paws or hide its face.
Created on Sun Sep 23 13:25:08 EDT 2012

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.