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# centipede

noun (a centipede, centipedes)

«centipede» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

A centipede is a small long thin creature with a flat body divided into many parts, each with one pair of legs. It is fast, lives in dark damp places and hunts insects. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#m1)

### In the lessons

In science lessons, centipedes are arthropods but not insects (insects have 6 legs). They live under logs and stones in minibeast hunts. They have poison claws to catch prey, and big tropical ones can give a painful bite. Compared with millipedes: centipedes have one pair of legs per body part, are fast hunters; millipedes have two pairs per part, are slow and eat dead plants.

### Examples

- A centipede ran out from under the log. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x1)
- Centipedes hunt insects and spiders. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x2)
- A centipede has one pair of legs on each body part. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x3)
- «Centi» means a hundred, but most centipedes don't have exactly 100 legs. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x4)
- We found a centipede during our minibeast hunt. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x5)
- Big centipedes can bite, so don't pick them up. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x6)
- Centipedes like dark, damp places. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x7)
- Is it a centipede or a millipede? Count the legs on each section. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x8)
- The centipede was invulnerable to weapons! [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/#x9)

### Note

Countable. «Centi-» = hundred (as in centimetre, century), «-pede» = foot. Maths trap: centipedes always have an odd number of pairs of legs (15, 21, 23…), so never exactly 100 legs (50 pairs). Myth: millipedes do not have 1,000 legs (most have far fewer).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «centipede» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/centipede/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«centipede» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/centipede.html) on Mova free.