anole

ano·le | \ ə-ˈnō-lē

Definition of anole

: 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 The anole lizards that dot many islands of the Caribbean are a natural evolutionary experiment. — Quanta Magazine, "New Lizard Shows Evolution’s Predictability," 29 June 2016 The animals, which were all legal to own, included fish, geckos, anoles, chinchillas, parakeets, cockatiels, a rabbit, rats, a ball python, a European glass lizard, hamsters, a frog, and a water dragon. — Gage Miskimen, USA TODAY, "More than 100 exotic animals found hoarded in Iowa apartment — many of them dead," 15 Aug. 2019 The grip strength of anole lizards on Dominica increased tenfold following Hurricane Maria. — Rafil Kroll-zaidi, Harper's magazine, "Findings," 22 July 2019 In the absence of trees the anoles had been using boulders to sun themselves and to display in search of mates. — Geoffrey Giller, Scientific American, "Island Lizards Shift to Evolutionary Fast-Track after Invasive Goats and Rats Are Eradicated," 30 Apr. 2018 Peterson said, before pulling out the green anole lizard. — Dave Quinn, PEOPLE.com, "Stephen Colbert Gets Bitten by a Lizard on the Late Show: 'That Wasn't Very Painful'," 21 Apr. 2018 For the past two years, more than 1,000 anole lizards from six Caribbean islands have populated rows of tall, narrow, and extremely humid tanks on campus. — Cristela Guerra, BostonGlobe.com, "Harvard University has an underground lizard colony," 28 Feb. 2018 Geneva said anoles lay a single egg every one to two weeks. — Cristela Guerra, BostonGlobe.com, "Harvard University has an underground lizard colony," 28 Feb. 2018 For the record, she has been bitten by an octopus, an anole lizard, wild mice, voles and a cardinal. — Corey Kilgannon, New York Times, "The Pigeon Stalker," 8 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'anole.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for anole

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 19th 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.