white-footed mouse

noun

white-foot·​ed mouse ˈ(h)wīt-ˌfu̇-təd- How to pronounce white-footed mouse (audio)
: any of various largely nocturnal mice (genus Peromyscus) of North and Central America typically having whitish feet and underparts
especially : a common woodland mouse (P. leucopus) of North America

Illustration of white-footed mouse

Illustration of white-footed mouse

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web In this view, distinguishing one Omicron sublineage from another is less like distinguishing a wolf from a cow and more like distinguishing a white-footed mouse from a deer mouse: important to a rodentologist but not really to anyone else. Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, 9 Jan. 2023 Acorns are an important food source for the white-footed mouse, a popular target of the ticks that carry the Lyme bacterium. Jennifer Barone, Discover Magazine, 8 July 2012 If a tick feeds on an infected white-footed mouse, the tick has a 90 percent chance of picking up the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, says Felicia Keesing, a Bard College disease ecologist. Kat Eschner, Scientific American, 7 July 2022 The wide-ranging white-footed mouse, well known among New Yorkers, and very closely related to the deer mouse, was predicted to be susceptible by a computer model that Barbara Han and her colleagues built. Carolyn Kormann, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2022

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

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of white-footed mouse was in 1827

Dictionary Entries Near white-footed mouse

Cite this Entry

“White-footed mouse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/white-footed%20mouse. Accessed 24 Mar. 2023.

Medical Definition

white-footed mouse

noun
white-foot·​ed mouse ˌ(h)wīt-ˌfu̇t-əd- How to pronounce white-footed mouse (audio)
: a common woodland mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) that has whitish feet and underparts and that is a reservoir for the spirochete of the genus Borrelia (B. burgdorferi) causing Lyme disease

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