Sphenodon

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The tuatara.

    "In New Zealand the dinosaurs had perished 65 million years before, as they had elsewhere on the globe; but the sphenodons or tuataras who had been their contemporaries from Jurassic times persisted, in New Zealand but nowhere else, for reasons that remain obscure."

  2. 2
    Any of the other extinct reptiles of the Sphenodontidae family.

Synonyms

All synonyms
genus sphenodon

Example

More examples

"In New Zealand the dinosaurs had perished 65 million years before, as they had elsewhere on the globe; but the sphenodons or tuataras who had been their contemporaries from Jurassic times persisted, in New Zealand but nowhere else, for reasons that remain obscure."

Etymology

From the genus name Sphenodon.

More for "sphenodon"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.