Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Producing eggs that hatch outside the body.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Laying eggs to be hatched, or producing ova to be matured, outside the body of the parent; pertaining to the Ovipara: distinguished from ovoviviparous and from viviparous. The lowest mammals, all birds, most reptiles, most fishes, and the great majority of invertebrates are oviparous. See
ovoviviparous .
Wiktionary
- adj. Egg-laying; depositing eggs that develop and hatch outside the body as a reproductive strategy.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Physiol.) Producing young from eggs; ; -- opposed to
viviparous .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. egg-laying
Etymologies
- From Latin oviparus (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The first platypus specimen, only a skin, reached England in 1799 and it wasn’t until 1884 when it was definitely established that platypuses were oviparous, that is, they laid eggs like reptiles and birds, but unlike the majority of mammals.”
“But a creature that is not oviparous is not, by definition, a bird, even if one were found that had feathers, had toothless beaks, and flew.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Sex Education, Dirty Words, and the Due Process Clause
“No, I'd say they'd have to be oviparous, and then the eggs would hatch fledglings, unable to fly for quite some time.”
“They'd be oviparous, wouldn't they?" asked Bonnard.”
“This group also have oviparous and viviparous forms.”
“Was very quick (took literally half an hour for 700 words) even though I had to re-write a few bits that were simply wrong (saying, for instance, that a "seagull gave birth and knowing it was going to die etc." when sea gulls are most definitely oviparous and not viviparous).”
“The beginnings of a transition from oviparous to viviparous reproduction.”
“Several other features indicate that laticaudids are ‘primitive’ compared to the hydrophiids: they are generally better able to move on land, and they are mostly (but not entirely) oviparous (whereas hydrophiids are all viviparous).”
“Laticaudids are less specialised for marine life than hydrophiids, being better able to move on land, and they are mostly (but not entirely) oviparous (whereas hydrophiids are all viviparous).”
“They might have evolved viviparity, but I personally favour the idea that they were still oviparous and that females laid eggs in terrestrial nests.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oviparous’.
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phrontistery - o
from phrontistery.info
ozostomia, ozoniferous, oxytone, oxytocic, oxyphonia, oxymoron, oxygeusia, oxyblepsia, oxyacanthous, oxter, oxyacaesthesia, owling and 504 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Curses!
May you be (a) . . . .
umbraculiform, ushabti, zemmi, vaccary, larmoyant, uvate, guignol, capripede, caseic, catapedamanic, catawamptious, upanga and 25 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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ovi-, ovo-
of or relating to eggs or ova
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Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1401 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Words of Dinosaurology
This quickly got bigger and weirder than originally intended, so now it's housing terms that relate to the study of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. See also Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Ichthy...
zygopophyses, ziphodont, plesiomorphic, cleidoic, endothermy, ectothermy, viviparous, vertebrae, cervical, dorsal, sacral, caudal and 628 more...
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jimmynewland's Words
steganography, incunabulum, dog days, geekhood, risorgimento, ab initio, slugabed, humanism, diddly-squat, doch-an-dorris, snickersnee, rictus and 198 more...
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bloodworm's list
These are words that I enjoy because they are unique, rare, long, or just cool.
circumlocution, hysteresis, schadenfreude, quixotic, loquacious, ennui, sesquipedalian, defenestrate, obfuscate, syzygy, ubiquitous, superfluous and 231 more...
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pword
vexatious, verdigris, variegated, diatribe, vicissitude, conflagration, plurality, paragon, charlatan, panacea, sycophant, plenitude and 347 more...
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Things Avian
Wordies relating to birdies. :-)
calidrid, corvid, avian, avifauna, beak, brood, aerie, altricial, albumen, winged, wattle, covey and 217 more...
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herotuesday's Words
butyraceous, thrasonical, turgid, ululate, irenic, punctilio, discombobulate, ecdysiast, formicate, favonian, agnate, erubescence and 614 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for oviparous.
chained_bear "Reflections upon insular tortoises, their origin—tortoises in general, whether deaf—their voices rarely heard—capable of a harsh cry however as well as the more usual hiss—all oviparous, careless of their young—crocodiles more diligent as parents..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Far Side of the World, 272 Feb 23, 2008