duck-billed dinosaur

noun

variants or less commonly duckbill dinosaur
: any of various herbivorous dinosaurs (family Hadrosauridae) of the Late Cretaceous having the jaw elongated into a snout that resembles a beak : hadrosaur
Fossils of a duck-billed dinosaur have turned up in Antarctica, recalling a time 66 million years ago when the now-frozen continent bore forests and a bountiful ecosystem.Richard Monastersky

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web In the 1980s, Bruce Stinchcomb, a paleontology student studying Gilmore and Stewart's, analyzed the old bones and identified them as belonging to a hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, per CNN. Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 Dec. 2021

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

Word History

First Known Use

1913, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of duck-billed dinosaur was in 1913

Dictionary Entries Near duck-billed dinosaur

Cite this Entry

“Duck-billed dinosaur.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/duck-billed%20dinosaur. Accessed 30 Mar. 2023.

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