How to Use water bear in a Sentence

water bear

noun
Definition of water bearnext
  • At least 1,300 species of water bear swim in Earth’s waters and crawl in its moist soils.
    — Matt Simon, Wired, 16 Jan. 2020
  • Even if the water bear's speed changed, their gait stayed the same, per Gizmodo.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Sep. 2021
  • And even if the water bear army fails, the hardy critters would still outlive the Enterprise’s crew.
    — Kyle Hill, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2013
  • The stone walkways along the water bore the weight of history, of other times and other lives.
    — Nicole Brodeur, The Seattle Times, 7 Dec. 2018
  • One of these hardier options is the tardigrade, or water bear (see image above).
    — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 9 Nov. 2021
  • In this state, water bears have survived in outer space and then revived.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Jan. 2020
  • The future is in sight and water bears face a plight, but first: a cartoon about the Duolingo inheritance.
    — Alex Baker-Whitcomb, Wired, 16 Jan. 2020
  • In the last few years, tardigrades, also known as water bears or moss piglets, have gotten a lot of attention for being tough.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 20 Mar. 2017
  • When the water bears returned to Earth, the scientists discovered that 68 percent lived through the ordeal.
    — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 7 Aug. 2019
  • But the new species, with its unique traits, has given science a whole new line of investigation into the bizarre water bear.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 28 Feb. 2018
  • As for whether any of the DNA or tardigrades are still intact, that’s anyone’s guess, but Spivack says there’s no reason to worry about water bears taking over the moon.
    — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, 5 Aug. 2019
  • One of the new CG ghosts, Muncher, took cues from a tardigrade (microscopic water bear) and glass frogs for translucency.
    — Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2022
  • The tiny water bear was roaming the lakeshore mosses within Crater Cirque, a natural bowl hollowed out by ancient glaciers.
    — Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 19 June 2014
  • When they were returned to earth and rehydrated, some of the microscopic water bears woke up.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 8 Aug. 2019
  • But in principle, a colony of water bears is within the realm of possibility.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 7 Aug. 2019
  • After a lunar lander crashed into the moon on April 11, thousands of dehydrated water bears were left on the moon's surface.
    — Alex Baker-Whitcomb, WIRED, 5 Aug. 2019
  • The toughest Earth creature could be the water bear, or tardigrades, which are .04 inch long invertebrate animals that live in mosses, soil, or lichens on earth.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 25 July 2018
  • Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are probably the toughest creatures on Earth.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Also known as water bears, tardigrades are tiny water-dwelling creatures famed for their resiliency.
    — National Geographic, 14 July 2017
  • With a resolution of 3 micron and a field of view of around one millimeter, this lens, which is packaged in red, allows the user to see cells and microorganisms like protozoans and water bears.
    — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 22 Nov. 2019
  • Despite their tiny stature and their adorable nicknames—moss piglets, water bears—the tenacious tardigrade has some tremendous capabilities.
    — Ben Panko, Smithsonian, 27 July 2017
  • To top it off, these lovable micro-animals are known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets.
    — Kate Golembiewski, Discover Magazine, 8 June 2023
  • The microbial creatures, also known as water bears, can survive just about anywhere, including the vacuum of space.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 28 Feb. 2018
  • To create the little organisms, which scoot around a petri dish a bit like water bears—those tiny microorganisms that are pretty much impossible to kill—the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos.
    — Courtney Linder, Popular Mechanics, 14 Jan. 2020
  • Spencer Debenport, a plant pathologist at Ohio State University, sports a tattoo of a tardigrade, a microscopic animal known as the water bear.
    — Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 7 Nov. 2011
  • Each sphere is teeming with invertebrate life, hosting creatures such as tardigrades, commonly known as water bears.
    — Candice Wang, Popular Science, 28 May 2020
  • However, some meteorites that hit Earth or Mars may experience lower shock pressures that a water bear could survive, Traspas explained to Science.
    — Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 May 2021
  • With an evolutionary timeline that stretches back to the age of the dinosaurs, this miniature micro-animal — also known the water bear — is renowned for its ability to survive extreme conditions.
    — Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 26 Sep. 2022
  • Building on the research, the Japanese scientists decided to sequence the genome of a different species of water bear, Ramazzottius varieornatus, considered among the most hardy of the tardigrades.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 20 Sep. 2016
  • The water bear is intriguing to scientists for its tough make-up being able to survive in unbearably hot and cold environments as well as low-pressure areas and even the vacuum of space, according to the Smithsonian.
    — Joe Mario Pedersen, orlandosentinel.com, 3 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'water bear.' 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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