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newt

UK/ˈnjuːt/US/ˈn(j)ut/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,352 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: newts

A newt is a small amphibian with a long tail. A great crested newt, newts in the pond, spot a newt.

The great crested one is protected in Britain and can hold up a building site for months, which has made it famous well beyond natural history. Newts can regrow a lost limb. The name came from a misdivision: an ewt became a newt.

Edward Knobel · Public domain

Definitions of newt

  1. 1nounnewtA small amphibian with a long tail.B2+

    “We found a newt hiding under a stone by the pond.”

newt is an amphibian.

Where it comes from

Middle English newte comes from a rebracketing of an ewte as a newte. Nickname and apron were reshaped the same way.

  1. Middle English

    newte

  2. English, today

    newt

Built from

  • ewte · Middle English — newt

From Middle English newte, newete, from rebracketing of Middle English ewte as a newte (for similar misdivisions compare adder, nickname, apron, umpire, etc.). Middle English evete, eute, euete, ewte (“newt”), derives from Old English efete (“lizard; newt”). Doublet of eft.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

newt in the wild

  • The smooth newt, European newt, northern smooth newt or common newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) is a species of newt.

    Smooth newt

  • The smooth newt was originally described by Carl Linnaeus as a lizard, and was then given different genus names before being classified as a member of Lissotriton.

    Smooth newt

  • Although it is currently the most widespread Triturus species, the northern crested newt was probably confined to small refugial areas in the Carpathians during the Last Glacial Maximum.

    Northern crested newt

  • While the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the northern crested newt as a species of Least Concern, its populations have been declining.

    Northern crested newt

  • Although still relatively common and classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, alpine newt populations are decreasing and have locally gone extinct.

    Alpine newt

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.