How to Use reptilian in a Sentence
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And that's the last mention of the Targaryens and their beloved reptilian beasts.
—Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 20 May 2019
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The glint of a reptilian eye came from a grove of Australian pine below.
—Freda Kreier, New York Times, 24 Oct. 2023
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Painted wide across the front of the truck and its open doors was a menacing, reptilian smile.
—Popular Mechanics, 31 Mar. 2023
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The surface darkens on one side, almost like a cropped view of the moon, or a patch of slightly reptilian skin.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2019
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The couple, who lives in The Lakes in North Charleston, started their week in 5 a.m. standoff with the reptilian menace.
—Christopher Brito, CBS News, 14 May 2018
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The dewback was a puppet made from the body of a stuffed rhinoceros, fitted with a reptilian head and tail.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 19 Dec. 2019
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The dawn of Taylor Swift's next era appears to be upon us, if a slew of reptilian teasers released this week are to be believed.
—Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 23 Aug. 2017
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A face with reptilian eyes appears on the back of a white van covered in enough dirt to make the license plate all but illegible.
—Pavel Golovkin, The Denver Post, 28 Apr. 2017
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Will Ariana or Miley show up with a reptilian pet of their own?
—Emma Specter, Vogue, 30 Aug. 2020
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Some of Swift's Australian fans also got reptilian ink ahead of the musician's arrival in the country.
—Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 23 Feb. 2024
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The look is complete with eye-like spots, faux reptilian scales, and a convincing, serpentine curve.
—National Geographic, 3 Apr. 2018
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The reptilian patients spend anywhere between three to eight weeks in rehab until their shells have healed.
—Scottie Andrew and Nadeem Muaddi, CNN, 29 June 2019
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Perhaps even more unsettling is the lizard fish, so named for the distinctly reptilian cast of its features.
—Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 17 June 2017
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To quote a wise puppet who receives far less umbrage than his less reptilian counterparts: Do or do not, there is no try.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 Nov. 2019
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The Sunshine State is known for its reptilian incidents.
—Christopher Carbone, Fox News, 24 June 2018
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The unique pattern, long sleeves and flowing train gave the look a fierce, reptilian-like effect while the open back and perfect glove-like fit feminized the look by letting her show off her curves.
—Sara M Moniuszko, USA TODAY, 7 June 2018
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The straplike, bright green leaves (called fronds on ferns) have a decidedly reptilian, scaly look that doesn't align with what most people picture as a fern.
—Savanna Bous, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Jan. 2023
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When the holidays begin, my reptilian brain takes over.
—Catharine Hamm, chicagotribune.com, 27 Nov. 2019
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Here are even more reasons why the reptilian rocker is McCartney.
—Rachel Yang, EW.com, 15 May 2020
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Among the entries from previous contests, now collected in a museum on the island, was a pair of reptilian high heels bristling with rows of teeth.
—Hikari Hida, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2023
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The fastback-ish rear is covered with 33 moving reptilian-scale panels.
—Sebastian Blanco, Car and Driver, 7 Jan. 2020
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It is set in a stone stronghold with a soaring entrance shaped like the head of Mario's reptilian nemesis Bowser and an entrance which passes through his gaping mouth.
—Caroline Reid, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2023
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If the younger Cohn often looks pinched and uncomfortable, the older Cohn appears to have mastered a cool, reptilian charisma.
—Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2019
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The platypus is an Australian mammal with some weirdly reptilian traits, like egg laying.
—National Geographic, 30 July 2016
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The platypus is an Australian mammal with some weirdly reptilian traits, like egg laying.
—National Geographic, 30 July 2016
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Our heroes battle more Nazis plus a shape-shifting reptilian race in this sequel to the 2012 sci-fi action comedy.
—Matt Cooper, latimes.com, 14 July 2019
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The actor's dramatic weight loss for the role gives him an emaciated, reptilian look.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Aug. 2019
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The reptilian chameleon has a reputation for camouflage that allows it to change its color to blend in with the surroundings to evade predators.
—Chuck Blount, ExpressNews.com, 3 Apr. 2020
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Horse’s manes and reptilian scales are among other details that helped inform her overall design.
—Los Angeles Times, 12 Nov. 2021
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The reptilian giant found in England’s Stonesfield quarry needed a name.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Feb. 2024
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One of the tegu’s fellow reptilian invaders, the Burmese python, has been called a poster-child for invasive species.
—Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Mar. 2018
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Sort of reptilian yet kind of fishy, with a mouth of fangs that splits open four-ways like an origami fortune teller.
—Matt Prigge, NBC News, 25 Oct. 2017
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The mics can’t handle it… When a woman does it, guys’ reptilian brains go, ‘Mama’s mad at me’ or something.
—Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 6 Oct. 2021
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There were also parrots, doves and beehives, as well as village dogs and lean reptilian chickens resting in the shade.
—Chiara Goia, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
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There were also parrots, doves and beehives, as well as village dogs and lean reptilian chickens resting in the shade.
—Chiara Goia, Smithsonian, 29 Apr. 2017
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Like Medusa — the snake-haired goddess of Greek mythology — brushing her reptilian locks, the mass of red-sided garter snakes would slither a foot or two up the side of the pit before sliding back to the bottom.
—Brad Dokken, Twin Cities, 18 June 2017
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These include mammals, sharks and other fish, and non-dinosaur reptilians.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 14 July 2023
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They’ve long been considered the only living mammals with these reptilian and fish-like suits of bony or scaly armor instead of hairy mammalian skin.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 24 May 2023
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This speedy growth may have played a role in the success that dinosaurs and pterosaurs enjoyed toward the end of the Triassic, when so many species with more typical reptilian bone structure became extinct.
—Kevin Padian, Scientific American, 1 May 2014
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The redoubtable reptilian mascot, which made its debut in 1999, was conceived by the Martin Agency to both reinforce Geico’s name and help the public figure out how to pronounce it.
—Joanne Kaufman, New York Times, 17 Sep. 2017
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Found in southern Germany, the 150 million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossil combined reptilian and avian features.
—Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, 21 June 2019
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So while at least part of the reptilian DVR was adapted from the brain region of an ancestral creature, the mammalian neocortex evolved as a new brain region burgeoning with novel cell types.
—Quanta Magazine, 14 Feb. 2023
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A painting of a tightly framed, gaudily made-up eye has an undeniable reptilian mien in its carefully detailed sheen and wrinkles.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2016
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Fossils of smaller species were not only rare, but also often overlooked in favor of reptilian showstoppers.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Jan. 2024
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Anthony Lent’s ring is a lifelike reptilian treasure, etched with scales and accented with crystal clear diamond eyes.
—Jennifer Jenkins, Harper's BAZAAR, 6 Mar. 2023
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The terrifying reptilian aliens from Season 1, the Gorn, return with a vengeance, decimating a brand new human colony that the Gorn believe falls within their territory.
—Adam B. Vary, Variety, 10 Aug. 2023
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Laurent’s team also found a claustrum in a distant reptilian relative, the Trachemys scripta turtle, leading the researchers to conclude that the brain region predates the evolution of reptiles.
—Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 12 Feb. 2020
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Sweet Gizmo, as Billy (Zach Galligan) names his new pet, accidentally produces a handful of fellow mogwai who quickly become weaponized as slimy, semi-reptilian creatures with rheumy eyes.
—Tim Carman, Houston Chronicle, 24 Dec. 2019
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For the first century of dinosaur science, paleontologists imagined titanosaurs as giant, overgrown reptiles – and used reptilian growth rates to predict their milestones.
—Kristi Curry Rogers, The Conversation, 7 Mar. 2024
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What’s clear is that the victims of climate change, reptilian and otherwise, will increase dramatically in coming years if world leaders keep failing to adequately rein in greenhouse gas emissions, which mostly come from burning fossil fuels.
—New York Times, 27 Apr. 2022
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But understanding the evolution of these scaly vertebrates depends on what paleontologists unearth in the fossil record, and the diversity of the earliest reptilian animals is still a knowledge gap researchers are trying to fill.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Feb. 2024
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Studies of ginkgoes, horsetails, and other common Mesozoic plants indicate that the ancient vegetation was more calorie-rich than previously supposed, so the abundance of green food likely fueled the reptilian giants’ unprecedented growth.
—Riley Black, Popular Science, 9 Nov. 2023
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One of the tegu’s fellow reptilian invaders, the Burmese python, has been called a poster-child for invasive species.
—Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Mar. 2018
-
Sort of reptilian yet kind of fishy, with a mouth of fangs that splits open four-ways like an origami fortune teller.
—Matt Prigge, NBC News, 25 Oct. 2017
-
The mics can’t handle it… When a woman does it, guys’ reptilian brains go, ‘Mama’s mad at me’ or something.
—Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 6 Oct. 2021
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There were also parrots, doves and beehives, as well as village dogs and lean reptilian chickens resting in the shade.
—Chiara Goia, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
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There were also parrots, doves and beehives, as well as village dogs and lean reptilian chickens resting in the shade.
—Chiara Goia, Smithsonian, 29 Apr. 2017
-
Like Medusa — the snake-haired goddess of Greek mythology — brushing her reptilian locks, the mass of red-sided garter snakes would slither a foot or two up the side of the pit before sliding back to the bottom.
—Brad Dokken, Twin Cities, 18 June 2017
-
These include mammals, sharks and other fish, and non-dinosaur reptilians.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 14 July 2023
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They’ve long been considered the only living mammals with these reptilian and fish-like suits of bony or scaly armor instead of hairy mammalian skin.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 24 May 2023
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'reptilian.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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