Australia Vocabulary

Anna
Enjoy this down under word list about Australia — a continent with many unique animals. But the koalas are the cutest!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. kangaroo
    a leaping marsupial with powerful hind legs and a thick tail
    To remember Captain James Cook, who sailed to Australia, we just needed to remember him as the cook in a restaurant that catered exclusively to koalas and kangaroos. The Thing About Jellyfish
  2. koala
    a tailless, gray marsupial that lives in trees
    The koala gets all the nutrients it needs from eucalyptus leaves. The Omnivore's Dilemma
  3. aboriginal
    relating to people inhabiting a region from the beginning
    But about three-quarters of Australia’s aboriginal population live in cities and towns rather than remote outposts.
    – The Washington Post
  4. didgeridoo
    a tube-shaped wind instrument of the Aborigine people
    The Anzac Day services began as the first light broke on the peninsula in northwest Turkey, with a mournful Aboriginal didgeridoo performance and the singing of hymns and solemn songs. Seattle Times (Apr 25, 2023)
  5. boomerang
    a curved piece of wood
    “Did you hear the one about the Australian who wanted to buy a new boomerang but he couldn’t get rid of his old one?” Jacob Have I Loved
  6. wallaby
    a small or medium-sized marsupial similar to a kangaroo
    Researchers in Australia reintroduced “ecosystem engineers” including species of rat and wallaby, to areas from which they had disappeared.
    – Scientific American
  7. platypus
    an egg-laying mammal with a broad bill, a tail, and webbed feet
    And a platypus, a mammal that looked like a bizarre cross between, oh, say, an otter and a duck. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate
  8. eucalyptus
    a Australasian tree valued for its timber and scented oil
    Koalas, which subsist exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, happily munched their way into new territories. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
  9. crocodile
    a large aquatic reptile with a long snout and sharp teeth
    The crocodiles smelled the meat and swallowed it quickly in their great jaws. The Girl Who Married a Lion: and Other Tales from Africa
  10. dingo
    wolflike yellowish-brown wild dog of Australia
    There is no evidence of any new technology or introduction reaching Australia from Indonesia, after Australia’s initial colonization 40,000 years ago, until the dingo appeared around 1500 B.C. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
  11. wombat
    a burrowing, plant-eating marsupial of Australia
    In tropical Queensland state, only two small wombat colonies remain.
    – The Washington Post
  12. emu
    a flightless bird similar to the ostrich but smaller
    A running theme is the presence of spirituality in everyday objects from Aborginal life: hunting boomerangs, tools, a rare didgeridoo, tall decorative feathers and an emu egg painted with a delicate landscape.
    – The New York Times
  13. Great Barrier Reef
    the largest coral reef in the world
    In Australia’s Tropical North Queensland, tourists can help with research and monitoring of the Great Barrier Reef through the Eye on the Reef program.
    – The Washington Post
  14. Coral Sea
    an arm of the South Pacific to the northeast of Australia
    In 2019 and 2020, I and a team of Australian scientists used the Schmidt Ocean Institute's remotely operated vehicle — a submarine named SuBastian — to explore the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.
    – Salon
  15. cricket
    a game played with a ball and bat by two teams of 11 players
    Every afternoon, I walk to the market with Patti, and after I help her carry our groceries upstairs, Lakshman knocks on our apartment door and we run downstairs to play cricket. Born Behind Bars
  16. outback
    the bush country of the interior of Australia
    But not only was it too cold for most life, it was also too dry, with an annual rain and snowfall of only two inches per year—the same as that of the Australian outback. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World
Created on Thu Sep 28 14:27:33 EDT 2023 (updated Fri Jan 12 14:21:05 EST 2024)

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