Other forms: tadpoles
A tadpole is the young of a frog, with a tail and no legs. A pond full of tadpoles, catch tadpoles, the tadpoles grew legs.
It breathes with gills, eats plants, and then rebuilds itself completely: the back legs come first, the tail is absorbed rather than dropped, and the gut shortens for a meat diet. The name means toad head, which is what it looks like.
1nountadpoleThe young of a frog, with a tail and no legs.
“The children kept tadpoles in a jar and watched them grow legs.”
tadpole is a young animal.
Middle English taddepol, from toad plus poll, a head — the creature looks like a head with a tail.
Middle English
tadpolle
English, today
tadpole
From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA