Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Living or able to live both on land and in the water.
  • adjective Growing in saturated soil.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In zoöl and botany, living close to water, and sometimes entering it, but not necessarily existing by it: as, the semiaquatic spiders, which run over the surface of water, or dive and conceal themselves beneath it; semiaquatic plants, which grow between tides, or in pools that periodically become dry, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Alternative spelling of semi-aquatic.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective partially aquatic; living or growing partly on land and partly in water
  • adjective having an aquatic early or larval form and a terrestrial adult form

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Proserpinaca is a semiaquatic plant, also called ‘mermaid weed.’

    FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010

  • Proserpinaca is a semiaquatic plant, also called ‘mermaid weed.’

    FALSE MERMAID ERIN HART 2010

  • Guesses range from turtle without the shell to semiaquatic rodent.

    CNN Transcript Aug 1, 2008 2008

  • Restudy of this murid showed that it was distinct from both Holochilus (the semiaquatic web-footed rats) and Hesperomys (nowadays synonymous with Calomys, the vesper mice) and thus deserving of its own genus, so today this species is called Lundomys molitor.

    Archive 2006-03-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Fish are poikilothermic aquatic animals; rice plants are thermophilic and semiaquatic.

    Chapter 4 1995

  • The coypu is adapted to a semiaquatic existence and has webbed feet, valvular nostrils that can be closed to keep water out, and underfur that remains dry even under water.

    15 Agouti 1991

  • The specialization of the marsh-deer, by the way, is further shown in its hoofs, which, thanks to its semiaquatic mode of life, have grown long, like those of such African swamp antelopes as the lechwe and situtunga.

    IV. The Headwaters of the Paraguay 1914

  • A rhinoceros, semiaquatic in habits, with curved tusks, resembling in aspect the hippopotamus, lived along the water courses of the plains east of the Rockies, and its bones are now found by the thousands in the Miocene of Kansas.

    The Elements of Geology William Harmon Norton 1900

  • Oil the farther shore of the lagoon, and facing for its entire length on the water, with an ornamental boat landing leading up to the grand entrance, through beautiful flower terraces for out-door exhibits, and past tanks for tile growth of semiaquatic plants, stands the building erected for the display of the world's flora.

    World`s Columbian Exposition at Chicago Unknown 1893

  • The fallen trees not completely covered by water are soon overgrown with mosses; aquatic and semiaquatic plants propagate themselves, and spread until they more or less completely fill up the space occupied by the water, and the surface is gradually converted from a pond to a quaking morass.

    Earth as Modified by Human Action, The~ Chapter 01 (historical) 1874

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