Amazing Animals: Amazing Animals, List 2

Explore the world of animals with this collection of words that will make you go hog wild! From aardvarks to zebras, it's sure to be more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!

Here are links to our lists in the collection: List 1, List 2, List 3, A Vocabulary Bestiary
25 words 2146 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. albatross
    a large web-footed bird noted for powerful gliding flight
    Then the land birds vanished and she saw only birds of the open ocean, the albatrosses and snowy terns. Frightful's Mountain
  2. anchovy
    small herring-like fish often canned whole or as paste
    A survey from mid-February determined America’s least favorite pizza topping to be anchovies, according to a post on YouGov.com. Fox News (Mar 9, 2021)
  3. armadillo
    a burrowing mammal whose body is covered with strong plates
    Giant-plated armadillos once roamed in the very valley where small armadillos were now moving through the brush. The Gene
  4. barracuda
    a predatory marine fish with large, strong teeth
    “It’s usually the smaller animals that are dangerous around here. Like barracudas. Those things are nasty.” The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
  5. caribou
    Arctic deer with large antlers in both sexes
    The vibrations in the earth grew stronger; Miyax drew back, as out of the fog came a huge caribou, running her way. Julie of the Wolves
  6. chameleon
    lizard of Africa and Madagascar able to change skin color
    For decades, biologists thought chameleons were able to change color using pigments in their skin. Scientific American (Sep 20, 2015)
  7. coral
    a very small ocean creature that often forms reefs
    When I put my head in the water for the first time and saw coral, I couldn't believe we lived on the same planet with these animals. Salon (May 14, 2022)
  8. crane
    a long-necked wading bird
    Within every circle, carved and then inlaid with great skill, there is a crane in graceful flight. A Single Shard
  9. cuckoo
    a bird with pointed wings and a long tail
    Even the tiresome call of the cuckoo in the walnut tree was only a pleasant sound of summer. The Door in the Wall
  10. ferret
    a small domesticated mammal with a flexible, elongated body
    She could feel the ferret’s tiny heart beating frantically beneath her fur. A Tangle of Knots
  11. grouse
    popular game bird having a plump body and feathered legs
    Grouse are medium to large-sized birds, similar to partridges, with round bodies and short, broad wings and the red grouse in particular is associated with heather, which grows in Scotland. Reuters (Aug 13, 2018)
  12. herring
    a commercially important fish that is often eaten as food
    By its smelly tail, Prince Brat tossed aside the uneaten herring. The Whipping Boy
  13. kangaroo
    a leaping marsupial with powerful hind legs and a thick tail
    “Don’t let me get my strap. Carrying on like hopping mad kangaroos in a boxing match. Delphine, you know better than to jump on your baby sister.” Gone Crazy in Alabama
  14. koala
    a tailless, gray marsupial that lives in trees
    A family in Australia was recently shocked to find an intruder hiding in their Christmas tree — a young koala. Fox News (Dec 2, 2020)
  15. lizard
    relatively long-bodied reptile with legs and a tapering tail
    “The lizards have become smarter. They run faster now and hide under blocks of cement,” the boy who had climbed told Ugwu. Half of a Yellow Sun
  16. locust
    migratory grasshopper that moves in a swarm
    In the perfect absence of any human sound, the locusts in the leaves above us roared in my ears. The Poisonwood Bible
  17. mink
    slender-bodied semiaquatic mammal valued for its fur
    Muskrats and mink and otter lived by the streams. Little House in the Big Woods
  18. pangolin
    a toothless mammal with horny scales and a long snout
    The pangolin, a small, armadillo-like mammal, lives in forests in Ivory Coast and elsewhere in West Africa. Reuters (Jan 25, 2018)
  19. prawn
    shrimp-like crustacean often used as food
    According to DiGregorio, "shrimp are primarily found in saltwater and prawns inhabit more brackish and freshwater environments." Salon (Jun 6, 2022)
  20. sable
    marten of northern Asian forests having dark brown fur
    Elands, sables, wildebeests, zebras and other large herbivores were hunted for meat or sport. New York Times (Jul 22, 2018)
  21. sardine
    small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe
    Thousands to millions of sardines emerge from a coral wall in cobalt waters just a few yards from the shores of Cebu Island in the Philippines. New York Times (Dec 14, 2016)
  22. slug
    a land-dwelling mollusk with no external shell
    There’s plenty of creepy, crawly stuff in the soil, and organisms such as worms, snails and slugs are essential to the planet’s health. Washington Post (Feb 5, 2022)
  23. termite
    ant-like social insect that feeds on wood
    The walls, eaten by termites, strained to support the roof full of holes. The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child
  24. tortoise
    a land turtle with clawed limbs
    A tortoise was shelled with a green and orange gourd. Pax
  25. yak
    large, long-haired ox of Tibet
    Technically speaking, the great majority of the “yaks” one sees in the Himalaya are actually dzopkyo—male crossbreeds of yaks and cattle—or dzom, female crossbreeds. Into Thin Air
Created on Wed Jul 06 17:27:12 EDT 2022 (updated Fri Jul 08 11:02:32 EDT 2022)

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.