proboscis

C2+ Topic:Animals

US /prəˈbɑsɪs/ UK /prəˈbɒsɪs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
an elongated tubular mouthpart of an insect, or a long flexible snout

The butterfly uncurled its proboscis to sip the nectar.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · an elongated tubular... snout trunk nose beak

Word family

Forms probosciformprobosciformed

Derived forms proboscideanproboscidiform

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

proboscis monkey
a monkey native to Borneo, known for its unusually large projecting nose

Noun + noun

Etymology

From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek proboskis ('elephant's trunk', literally 'means for taking food'), from pro- ('before, forward') + boskein ('to feed, nourish').

proboskis Ancient Greek boskein Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals

External links

# proboscis

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /prəˈbɑsɪs/
**IPA (UK):** /prəˈbɒsɪs/

## Meanings
1. an elongated tubular mouthpart of an insect, or a long flexible snout

## Examples
- The butterfly uncurled its proboscis to sip the nectar.

## Synonyms
- snout
- trunk
- nose
- beak

## Derived Forms
- proboscidean
- proboscidiform

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: proboskis
- Root: boskein

## Etymology
From Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek proboskis ('elephant's trunk', literally 'means for taking food'), from pro- ('before, forward') + boskein ('to feed, nourish').

## AI Etymology
Proboscis is from Latin proboscis, from Ancient Greek proboskis ('elephant's trunk', literally 'means for taking food'), from pro- ('before, forward') + boskein ('to feed, nourish'). Important recorded forms include proboskis (Ancient Greek) and boskein (Ancient Greek). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers an elongated tubular mouthpart of an insect, or a long flexible snout. The wider family includes derived forms such as proboscidean and proboscidiform.

## Topics
- Animals

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