tadpole

English

Frog tadpoles

Salamander tadpole

Etymology

From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad +‎ poll (“head”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtædpoʊl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædpoʊl

Noun

tadpole (plural tadpoles)

1. A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.
2. (by extension) The aquatic larva of any amphibian.

   salamander tadpole

3. A type of cargo bike that has two wheels in front and one in back.
4. (psychology) A child's basic drawing of a human being, having a detailed head but only sticks for the body and limbs.
5. (informal) A small child.
   • 1970, Dorothy Clarke Wilson, Lone Woman, page 174:

     Shouldn't you tadpoles be in bed?

6. (informal, derogatory) An insignificant person.
   • 1900 August 4, The Geelong Advertiser, Victoria, page 6, column 7:

     Woman's voice: You impudent imp! You tadpole! You shrimp!

   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 142:

     “[H]ere's this Tooralooral tadpole of a Mayor shovin' his nose into the business and arrestin' our Puddin' without rhyme or reason.”

Synonyms

• (toad or frog larva): polliwog, porriwiggle

Derived terms

• frogpole
• tadpole operator
• tadpole person
• tadpole physa
• tadpole shrimp
• toadpole

 

Translations

toad or frog larva

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
• Afrikaans: paddavis (af), paddavissie, kikvors (af)
• Albanian: fulterëz (sq) f
• Arabic: شُرْغُوف m (šurḡūf)
• Armenian: շերեփուկ (hy) (šerepʻuk)
• Asi: ulong-ulong
• Assamese: লালুকী (laluki)
• Asturian: renacuayu m, rancuayu m
• Avar: къоркъотӏинчӏ (qxʼorqxʼotʼinčʼ)
• Azerbaijani: çömçəquyruq (az)
• Basque: zapaburu
• Belarusian: апало́нік m (apalónik)
• Bengali: বেঙাচি (beṅaci)
• Bulgarian: попова лъжичка f (popova lǎžička)
• Burmese: ဖားလောင်း (my) (hpa:laung:), ဖားတစ်ပိုင်းငါးတစ်ပိုင်း (my) (hpa:tacpuing:nga:tacpuing:)
• Catalan: capgròs (ca) m, cullerot (ca) m
• Central Melanau: belakedou
• Chechen: сеса (sesa)
• Chichewa: mbululu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蝌蚪 (zh) (kēdǒu)

  Wu: 拿摩溫／拿摩温, 蝌蚪

• Czech: pulec (cs) m
• Danish: haletudse (da) c
• Drung: naku
• Dutch: dikkopje (nl) n (diminutive), dikkop (nl) m, kikkervisje (nl) n (diminutive)
• Eastern Cham: ꨀꨗꩀ ꨯꨗꨱꩀ (anưk nauk)
• Erzya: ботпря (botpŕa)
• Esperanto: ranido, bufido
• Estonian: kulles
• Faroese: halapadda f
• Finnish: nuijapää (fi)
• French: têtard (fr) m
• Galician: cágado (gl) m, culler (gl) f, cabezudo (gl) m
• Georgian: თავკომბალა (tavḳombala)
• German: Kaulquappe (de) f
• Gooniyandi: gilyjirrjgi
• Greek: γυρίνος (el) m (gyrínos)

  Ancient: γυρῖνος m (gurînos)

• Hebrew: רֹאשָׁן (he) m (rošan)
• Hindi: बेंगची f (beṅgcī), मेंढक का बच्चा m (meṇḍhak kā baccā), टैडपोल (ṭaiḍpol)
• Hungarian: ebihal (hu)
• Hunsrik: Mollekopp m
• Iban: emburi, empa
• Icelandic: halakarta f, froskungi m
• Indonesian: berudu (id)
• Ingrian: naappapää, naappopää, naappojain
• Interlingua: larva de rana
• Irish: torbán m
• Isan: ฮวก
• Italian: girino (it) m
• Japanese: おたまじゃくし (ja) (otamajakushi), オタマジャクシ (ja) (otamajakushi), お玉杓子 (ja) (otamajakushi), 蝌蚪 (ja) (かと, kato)
• Javanese: kecebong
• Kalmyk: шанһ хорха (şanğ xorxa)
• Kamta: নুকা (nuka), নুকী (nuki)
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Kazakh: бақашабақ (baqaşabaq), ит балық (it balyq)
• Khmer: ក្អាត់ (km) (kʼat), ក្អុក (km) (kʼok)
• Korean: 올챙이 (ko) (olchaeng'i)
• Kyrgyz: көнөкбаш (könökbaş)
• Lao: ຮວກ (hūak)
• Latgalian: kūrcaklys m
• Latin: ranunculus m, ranula f
• Latvian: kurkulis m
• Lezgi: варвар (varvar)
• Lithuanian: buožgalvis
• Luxembourgish: Kauzekapp m
• Macedonian: полногла́вец m (polnoglávec)
• Malagasy: tsiboboka (mg)
• Malay: berudu, cebong
• Maltese: marżebb m
• Maori: hua poraka, punua poraka
• Masbatenyo: ulu-ulo
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: шанаган хорхой (šanagan xorxoj)

  Mongolian: ᠰᠢᠨᠠᠭᠠᠨ
  ᠬᠣᠷᠤᠬᠠᠢ (sinaɣan qoruqai)

• Navajo: tsʼǫʼasánii
• Nepali: चेपागाडा (cepāgāḍā)
• Nkonya: nwunkpodikpodi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rumpetroll (no) n

  Nynorsk: lappause f, rumpetroll n

• Nuosu: ꀌꀠꒊꆱ (uox ba yyp hlyt)
• Odia: please add this translation if you can
• Ojibwe: boodoonh
• Ossetian: къӕбила (k’æbila)
• Pacoh: apêq
• Pawnee: paksaku
• Persian: بچه قورباغه (bačče-ye qurbâğe), کفچلیز (fa) (kafčaliz), کفلیسک (kaflisak)
• Polish: kijanka (pl) f
• Portuguese: girino (pt) m
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: mormoloc (ro) m
• Russian: голова́стик (ru) m (golovástik)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пуноглавац m

  Roman: punoglavac (sh) m

• Shan: ႁူၵ်ႈ (shn) (hūuk)
• Sinhalese: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: žubrienka (sk) f
• Slovene: paglavec m
• Spanish: renacuajo (es) m, ranacuajo (es) m
• Swahili: kiluwiluwi
• Swedish: grodyngel (sv) n, yngel (sv) n
• Tagal Murut: tibulu
• Tagalog: uluulo, butete, kitikiti
• Tai Dam: ꪅꪺꪀ
• Tajik: кафлесак (kaflesak)
• Tamil: தவளைக்குஞ்சு (ta) (tavaḷaikkuñcu)
• Tboli: bikol
• Telugu: తోకకప్ప (tōkakappa)
• Thai: ลูกอ๊อด (th) (lûuk-ɔ́ɔt)
• Tibetan: ལྕོང་མོ (lcong mo)
• Turkish: iribaş (tr)
• Turkmen: please add this translation if you can
• Tuvan: пага төлү (paga tölü)
• Ukrainian: пу́головок m (púholovok)
• Uyghur: قۇمچاق (qumchaq)
• Uzbek: itbaliq (uz)
• Vietnamese: nòng nọc (vi), nọc nọc, óc nóc
• Welsh: grifft m, penbwl (cy) m
• West Coast Bajau: jejantik
• Yiddish: קאָפּעקל (kopekl)
• Yoruba: légbélègbé
• Yucatec Maya: please add this translation if you can
• Yup'ik: please add this translation if you can
• Zhuang: duzrug
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

• pot lead