Standard Lemma guide

tadpole

noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈtædpoʊl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ædpoʊl
  • CMU ARPABET: T AE1 D P OW2 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A young toad or frog in its larval stage of development that lives in water, has a tail and no legs, and, like a fish, breathes through gills.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The aquatic larva of any amphibian.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

Examples

  • salamander tadpole

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A type of cargo bike that has two wheels in front and one in back.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A child's basic drawing of a human being, having a detailed head but only sticks for the body and limbs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, psychology, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A small child.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

An insignificant person.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: derogatory, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

a larval frog or toad

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: polliwog, pollywog

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: larva

History

Etymology

From Middle English tadpolle, taddepol, equivalent to toad + poll (“head”).

Across languages

Translations

161 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Abkhaz: алахы́ (alaxə́) — toad or frog larva
  • Afrikaans: paddavis — toad or frog larva
  • Afrikaans: paddavissie — toad or frog larva
  • Afrikaans: kikvors — toad or frog larva
  • Albanian: fulterëz — toad or frog larva
  • Arabic: شُرْغُوف (šurḡūf) — toad or frog larva
  • Armenian: շերեփուկ (šerepʻuk) — toad or frog larva
  • Asi: ulong-ulong — toad or frog larva
  • Assamese: লালুকী (laluki) — toad or frog larva
  • Asturian: renacuayu — toad or frog larva
  • Asturian: rancuayu — toad or frog larva
  • Asturian: ranuecu — toad or frog larva
  • Asturian: cabezón — toad or frog larva
  • Avar: къоркъотӏинчӏ (qxʼorqxʼotʼinčʼ) — toad or frog larva
  • Azerbaijani: çömçəquyruq — toad or frog larva
  • West Coast Bajau: jejantik — toad or frog larva
  • Basque: zapaburu — toad or frog larva
  • Belarusian: апало́нік (apalónik) — toad or frog larva
  • Bengali: বেঙাচি (beṅaci) — toad or frog larva
  • Bulgarian: попова лъжичка (popova lǎžička) — toad or frog larva
  • Burmese: ဖားလောင်း (hpa:laung:) — toad or frog larva
  • Burmese: ဖားတစ်ပိုင်းငါးတစ်ပိုင်း (hpa:tacpuing:nga:tacpuing:) — toad or frog larva
  • Catalan: capgròs — toad or frog larva
  • Catalan: cullerot — toad or frog larva
  • Eastern Cham: ꨀꨗꩀ ꨯꨗꨱꩀ (anưk nauk) — toad or frog larva
  • Chechen: сеса (sesa) — toad or frog larva
  • Chichewa: mbululu — toad or frog larva
  • Chinese Mandarin: 蝌蚪 (kēdǒu) — toad or frog larva
  • Wu Chinese: 拿摩溫 /拿摩温 — toad or frog larva
  • Wu Chinese: 蝌蚪 — toad or frog larva
  • Czech: pulec — toad or frog larva
  • Danish: haletudse — toad or frog larva
  • Drung: naku — toad or frog larva
  • Dutch: dikkopje — toad or frog larva
  • Dutch: dikkop — toad or frog larva
  • Dutch: kikkervisje — toad or frog larva
  • Erzya: ботпря (botpŕa) — toad or frog larva
  • Esperanto: ranido — toad or frog larva
  • Esperanto: bufido — toad or frog larva
  • Estonian: kulles — toad or frog larva
  • Faroese: halapadda — toad or frog larva
  • Finnish: nuijapää — toad or frog larva
  • French: têtard — toad or frog larva
  • Galician: cágado — toad or frog larva
  • Galician: culler — toad or frog larva
  • Galician: cabezudo — toad or frog larva
  • Georgian: თავკომბალა (tavḳombala) — toad or frog larva
  • German: Kaulquappe — toad or frog larva
  • Gooniyandi: gilyjirrjgi — toad or frog larva
  • Greek: γυρίνος (gyrínos) — toad or frog larva
  • Ancient Greek: γυρῖνος (gurînos) — toad or frog larva
  • Hebrew: רֹאשָׁן (rošan) — toad or frog larva
  • Hindi: बेंगची (beṅgcī) — toad or frog larva
  • Hindi: मेंढक का बच्चा (meṇḍhak kā baccā) — toad or frog larva
  • Hindi: टैडपोल (ṭaiḍpol) — toad or frog larva
  • Hungarian: ebihal — toad or frog larva
  • Hunsrik: Mollekopp — toad or frog larva
  • Iban: emburi — toad or frog larva
  • Iban: empa — toad or frog larva
  • Icelandic: halakarta — toad or frog larva
  • Icelandic: froskungi — toad or frog larva
  • Indonesian: berudu — toad or frog larva
  • Ingrian: naappapää — toad or frog larva
  • Ingrian: naappopää — toad or frog larva
  • Ingrian: naappojain — toad or frog larva
  • Interlingua: larva de rana — toad or frog larva
  • Irish: torbán — toad or frog larva
  • Isan: ฮวก — toad or frog larva
  • Italian: girino — toad or frog larva
  • Japanese: おたまじゃくし (otamajakushi) — toad or frog larva
  • Japanese: オタマジャクシ (otamajakushi) — toad or frog larva
  • Japanese: お玉杓子 (otamajakushi) — toad or frog larva
  • Japanese: 蝌蚪 (kato) — toad or frog larva
  • Javanese: kecebong — toad or frog larva
  • Kalmyk: шанһ хорха (şanğ xorxa) — toad or frog larva
  • Kamta: নুকা (nuka) — toad or frog larva
  • Kamta: নুকী (nuki) — toad or frog larva
  • Kazakh: бақашабақ (baqaşabaq) — toad or frog larva
  • Kazakh: ит балық (it balyq) — toad or frog larva
  • Khmer: ក្អាត់ (kʼat) — toad or frog larva
  • Khmer: ក្អុក (kʼok) — toad or frog larva
  • Korean: 올챙이 (olchaeng'i) — toad or frog larva
  • Central Kurdish: سەرمێکوتە (sermêkute) — toad or frog larva
  • Kyrgyz: көнөкбаш (könökbaş) — toad or frog larva
  • Lao: ຮວກ (hūak) — toad or frog larva
  • Latgalian: kūrcaklys — toad or frog larva
  • Latin: ranunculus — toad or frog larva
  • Latin: ranula — toad or frog larva
  • Latvian: kurkulis — toad or frog larva
  • Lezgi: варвар (varvar) — toad or frog larva
  • Lithuanian: buožgalvis — toad or frog larva
  • Luxembourgish: Kauzekapp — toad or frog larva
  • Macedonian: полногла́вец (polnoglávec) — toad or frog larva
  • Malagasy: tsiboboka — toad or frog larva
  • Malay: berudu — toad or frog larva
  • Malay: cebong — toad or frog larva
  • Maltese: marżebb — toad or frog larva
  • Māori: hua poraka — toad or frog larva
  • Māori: punua poraka — toad or frog larva
  • Masbatenyo: ulu-ulo — toad or frog larva
  • Central Melanau: belakedou — toad or frog larva
  • Mongolian: шанаган хорхой (šanagan xorxoj) — toad or frog larva
  • Mongolian: ᠰᠢᠨᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠬᠣᠷᠤᠬᠠᠢ (sinaɣan koruqai) — toad or frog larva
  • Tagal Murut: tibulu — toad or frog larva
  • Navajo: tsʼǫʼasánii — toad or frog larva
  • Nepali: चेपागाडा (cepāgāḍā) — toad or frog larva
  • Nkonya: nwunkpodikpodi — toad or frog larva
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rumpetroll — toad or frog larva
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: lappause — toad or frog larva
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: rumpetroll — toad or frog larva
  • Nuosu: ꀌꀠꒊꆱ (uox ba yyp hlyt) — toad or frog larva
  • Ojibwe: boodoonh — toad or frog larva
  • Ossetian: къӕбила (k’æbila) — toad or frog larva
  • Pacoh: apêq — toad or frog larva
  • Pawnee: paksaku — toad or frog larva
  • Persian: بچه قورباغه (bačče-ye qurbâġe) — toad or frog larva
  • Persian: کفچلیز (kafčaliz) — toad or frog larva
  • Persian: کفلیسک (kaflisak) — toad or frog larva
  • Polish: kijanka — toad or frog larva
  • Portuguese: girino — toad or frog larva
  • Romanian: mormoloc — toad or frog larva
  • Russian: голова́стик (golovástik) — toad or frog larva
  • Scottish Gaelic: ceann-phollan — toad or frog larva
  • Serbo-Croatian: пуноглавац — toad or frog larva
  • Serbo-Croatian: punoglavac — toad or frog larva
  • Shan: ႁူၵ်ႈ (hūuk) — toad or frog larva
  • Slovak: žubrienka — toad or frog larva
  • Slovene: paglavec — toad or frog larva
  • Spanish: renacuajo — toad or frog larva
  • Spanish: ranacuajo — toad or frog larva
  • Spanish: ajolote — toad or frog larva
  • Spanish: atepocate — toad or frog larva
  • Swahili: kiluwiluwi — toad or frog larva
  • Swedish: grodyngel — toad or frog larva
  • Swedish: yngel — toad or frog larva
  • Tagalog: uluulo — toad or frog larva
  • Tagalog: butete — toad or frog larva
  • Tagalog: kitikiti — toad or frog larva
  • Tai Dam: ꪅꪺꪀ — toad or frog larva
  • Tajik: кафлесак (kaflesak) — toad or frog larva
  • Tamil: தவளைக்குஞ்சு (tavaḷaikkuñcu) — toad or frog larva
  • Tamil: தலைப்பிரட்டை (talaippiraṭṭai) — toad or frog larva
  • Tamil: தவளைக்குட்டி (tavaḷaikkuṭṭi) — toad or frog larva
  • Tboli: bikol — toad or frog larva
  • Telugu: తోకకప్ప (tōkakappa) — toad or frog larva
  • Thai: ลูกอ๊อด (lûuk-ɔ́ɔt) — toad or frog larva
  • Tibetan: ལྕོང་མོ (lcong mo) — toad or frog larva
  • Turkish: iribaş — toad or frog larva
  • Tuvan: пага төлү (paga tölü) — toad or frog larva
  • Ukrainian: пу́головок (púholovok) — toad or frog larva
  • Unami: tunahkikwe — toad or frog larva
  • Uyghur: قۇمچاق (qumchaq) — toad or frog larva
  • Uzbek: itbaliq — toad or frog larva
  • Vietnamese: nòng nọc — toad or frog larva
  • Vietnamese: nọc nọc — toad or frog larva
  • Vietnamese: óc nóc — toad or frog larva
  • Welsh: grifft — toad or frog larva
  • Welsh: penbwl — toad or frog larva
  • Yiddish: קאָפּעקל (kopekl) — toad or frog larva
  • Yoruba: légbélègbé — toad or frog larva
  • Zhuang: duzrug — toad or frog larva
Real reading context

tadpole in complete knowledge articles