tortoise

English

Wikipedia

A tortoise

Etymology

Middle English tortuse, tortuce, tortuge, from Medieval Latin tortuca, possibly from Late Latin tartarūcha, from Late Latin tartarūchus (“of Tartarus”), from Ancient Greek ταρταροῦχος (tartarouchos, “from Tartaros, Tartarus, the land of the dead in ancient stories”), because it used to be thought that tortoises and turtles came from the underworld; or from Latin tortus (“twisted”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtɔː(r)təs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɔː(r)təs

Noun

tortoise (plural tortoises)

1. Any of various land-dwelling reptiles, of family Testudinidae, whose body is enclosed in a shell (carapace plus plastron). The animal can withdraw its head and four legs partially into the shell, providing some protection from predators.

Synonyms

• shellpad

Derived terms

• tortoise shell, tortoise-shell, pancake tortoise

Translations

land-dwelling reptile

• Afrikaans: (tortoise or turtle) skilpad (af)
• Albanian: (tortoise or turtle) breshkë (sq) f
• Arabic: (tortoise or turtle) سُلَحْفَاة (ar) (sulaḥfāa) f, سَلاحِف (ar) (salāḥif) pl
• Armenian: կրիա (hy) (kria)
• Aromanian: broascã (rup) f, broascã tsãstoasã (rup) f
• Azeri: (tortoise or turtle) tısbağa (az)
• Belarusian: (tortoise or turtle) чарапаха (be) (čarapáxa) f
• Bengali: (tortoise or turtle) কাছিম (bn) (kachim)
• Breton: baot (br) f, baoted (br) pl, baot douar (br)
• Bulgarian: (tortoise or turtle) костенурка (bg) (kostenúrka) f
• Burmese: (tortoise or turtle) လိပ် (my) (leik)
• Catalan: tortuga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (tortoise or turtle) 龜 (cmn), 龟 (cmn) (guī), 烏龜 (cmn), 乌龟 (cmn) (wūguī), 王八 (cmn) (wángba), 草龜 (cmn), 草龟 (cmn) (cǎoguī)

• Czech: želva (cs)
• Danish: skildpadde (da) c
• Dutch: schildpad (nl) f
• Esperanto: testudo (eo)
• Estonian: (tortoise or turtle) kilpkonn (et)
• Finnish: (tortoise or turtle) kilpikonna (fi)
• French: (tortoise or turtle) tortue (fr) f

  Old French: welke f

• German: (tortoise or turtle) Schildkröte (de) f
• Greek: (tortoise or turtle) χελώνα (el) (chelóna) f
• Hebrew: (tortoise or turtle) צב (he) (tzav) m
• Hindi: कछुआ (hi) (kachu'ā) m
• Hungarian: teknősbéka (hu), teknős (hu)
• Indonesian: kura-kura (id), penyu (id)
• Isthmus Zapotec: bigu
• Italian: (tortoise or turtle) tartaruga (it) f
• Japanese: (tortoise or turtle) 亀 (ja) (かめ, kame), カメ (ja) (kame), 陸亀 (ja) (りくがめ, rikugame)
• Jèrriais: tortue f
• Kannada: ಆಮೆ (kn) (āme), ಕೂರ್ಮ (kn) (kūrma)
• Kazakh: (tortoise or turtle) тасбақа (kk) (tasbaqa)
• Khmer: អណ្ដើក (km) (ɑndaək)
• Korean: (tortoise or turtle) 거북 (ko) (geobuk), 거북이 (ko) (geobugi)
• Kyrgyz: (tortoise or turtle) ташбака (ky) (tašbaka)
• Lao: (tortoise or turtle) ເຕົ່າ (lo) (tao)
• Latin: testudo (la) m
• Latvian: (tortoise or turtle) bruņurupucis (lv) m

• Lithuanian: (tortoise or turtle) vėžlys (lt) m
• Macedonian: (tortoise or turtle) желка (mk) (žélka) f
• Malay: kura-kura (ms)
• Malayalam: ആമ (ml) (āma)
• Maori: honuwhenua (mi)
• Nahuatl: āyotl (nah)
• Navajo: chʼééh digháhii
• Norwegian: skilpadde (no), skjelpadde (no), landskilpadde (no) f
• Pali: kacchapa (pi) m
• Persian: (tortoise or turtle) لاک‌پشت (fa) (lâk-pošt)
• Polish: (tortoise or turtle) żółw (pl) m, żółw lądowy (pl) m
• Portuguese: (tortoise or turtle) tartaruga (pt) f, jabuti (pt) m, cágado (pt)
• Romanian: țestoasă (ro) f, broască țestoasă (ro) f
• Russian: (tortoise or turtle) черепаха (ru) (čerepáxa) f
• Scottish Gaelic: crùban-coille (gd) m, sligeanach (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: (tortoise or turtle) корњача (sh) f

  Roman: (tortoise or turtle) kornjača (sh) f

• Slovak: (tortoise or turtle) korytnačka (sk) f
• Slovene: (tortoise or turtle) želva (sl) f, kopenska želva (sl) f
• Somali: diin (so)
• Spanish: (tortoise or turtle) tortuga (es) f, tortuga terrestre (es) f, morrocoy (es) m (Venezuela)
• Swahili: kobe (sw)
• Swedish: sköldpadda (sv)
• Tajik: (tortoise or turtle) сангпушт (tg) (sangpušt)
• Tamil: ஓடன் (ta) (ōṭaṉ), ஆமை (ta) (āmai)
• Telugu: (tortoise or turtle) తాబేలు (te) (tābēlu)
• Thai: (tortoise or turtle) เต่า (th) (tàò)
• Tswana: khudu (tn) (9/10)
• Turkish: kaplumbağa (tr), tosbağa (tr)
• Turkmen: (tortoise or turtle) pyşbaga (tk)
• Ukrainian: (tortoise or turtle) черепаха (uk) (čerepáxa) f
• Uyghur:

  Cyrillic: ташпақа (ug) (ташпақа)

  Persic: تاشپاقا (ug) (tashpaqa)

  Roman: taşpak̡a (ug) (taşpak̡a)

• Uzbek: (tortoise or turtle) toshbaqa (uz)
• Vietnamese: (tortoise or turtle) rùa (vi)
• Volapük: (male or female) tortug (vo), (male) hitortug (vo), (female) jitortug (vo), (male or female offspring, young) tortugül (vo)
• West Frisian: skyldpod (fy)
• Yiddish: (tortoise or turtle) טשערעפּאַכע (yi) (tsherepakhe) f

See also

• terrapin
• turtle