tail

CEFRA1

/ˈteɪ̯l/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The part extending from the back of an animal's body.

  2. 02

    verb

    To follow someone closely.

Examples

  • A fish swims by moving its tail.

  • A rabbit has long ears and a short tail.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈtʰeɪ̯l]
  • /ˈtæ̝ɪ̯l/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something.

  2. The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.

  3. The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.

More examples

In context

  • The male of the species has a white tail.

  • A sequence (a#95;n) is said to be frequently 0 if every tail of the sequence contains 0.

  • Most primates have a tail and fangs.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The detective decided to blank the suspect through the crowded streets.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair...