squirrel

CEFRB1

/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A small animal with a bushy tail that climbs trees.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    Someone who displays squirrel-like qualities such as stealing or hoarding objects.

Examples

  • A squirrel is taking a bath in the pond.

  • A squirrel hid among the branches.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈskwɪrᵻl/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.

  2. Any of those distinguished typically by a large bushy tail; any of the tree squirrels of subfamily Sciurinae or phenotypically similar sciurids.

  3. One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.

More examples

In context

  • The squirrel was busy gathering nuts.

  • flying squirrels

  • ground squirrels

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

In the park, a blank collects and stores nuts for the winter.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English squirel, squyrelle, from Anglo-Norman esquirel and Old French escurel (whence French écureuil), from Vulgar Latin *scūriolus, diminutive of *scūrius, variant of Latin sciūrus, from Ancient Greek σκίουρος (skíouros, “shadow-tail”, from σκιά (skiá, “shadow”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”)). Displaced native Middle English acquerne, aquerne, from Old English ācweorna. See dialectical English con and puristic English oakwern.