anole

noun

ano·​le ə-ˈnō-lē 

: any of a genus (Anolis) of arboreal American lizards (such as the green anole) of the iguana family that have a brightly colored dewlap and the ability to change color

Examples of anole in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Kites gather in large roosting colonies to prepare for migration, loading up on calories by eating insects, anoles, frogs and even small mammals and birds. —Ramon Padilla, USA TODAY, 10 Aug. 2024

This whole natural experiment with python or iguanas or Caribbean anoles is playing out right in front of us in Florida. —Bill Kearney, Hartford Courant, 27 Jan. 2024

Meanwhile, the green anoles on islands without brown anoles did not develop the larger, stickier pads. —Bill Kearney, Hartford Courant, 27 Jan. 2024

Share [Findings] Researchers who wear orange catch more anoles, and Australia began culling thousands of camels with helicopter snipers. —Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harper's Magazine, 22 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French anolis, borrowed from Dominica Island Carib anáoli

Note: The word apparently first appears solely in the form anolis in the anonymous Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles de l'Amerique (Rotterdam, 1658), attributed to a Huguenot clergyman named Charles de Rochefort (1605-83). In the text (p. 130-31) the word is only used in the plural, so that the singular is ambiguous, but an illustration of a single lizard on p. 135 has the caption Anolis. The form anolis, again only in the plural but without the illustration, is reproduced in an English translation by John Davies of Histoire naturelle et morale, entitled The History of the Caribby-Islands (London, 1666), p. 75 ("The Anolis are very common in all the Plantations: they are about the bigness and length of the Lizzards seen in France …"). Though it occurs but rarely, the singular is anolis in European vernaculars and Latin generally until 1750, when anoli appears in the Manuel lexique, ou Dictionnaire portatif des mots françois attributed to the Abbé Prévost. The English form anole does not seem to be attested before the nineteenth century. Island Carib anáoli ("ce lezart icy est gros comme un gros baston & long d'une coudée" - "this lizard is thick as a thick stick and a cubit in length") is from Raymond Breton's 1665 Dictionnaire caraïbe-français, a lexicon of Lesser Antillean Arawak.

First Known Use

1745, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing anole

• Carolina anole
• green anole

Kids Definition

anole

noun

ano·​le ə-ˈnō-lē 

: any of various chiefly tropical lizards that are able to change color and in the males have a usually brightly colored flap of skin on the throat