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# stegosaurus

noun (a stegosaurus, stegosauruses; scientists also write Stegosaurus as a genus name)

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

## Everyday

1. A stegosaurus was a large plant-eating dinosaur with two rows of big bony plates along its back and sharp spikes on its tail. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#m1)
2. The name means «roof lizard» because people once thought its plates lay flat like roof tiles. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#m2)

### In the lessons

In lessons about dinosaurs and fossils, stegosaurus is a favourite example: it lived in the Jurassic period, walked on four legs, had a tiny brain for its big body, and used its spiked tail (called a thagomizer) to defend itself. It lived long before Tyrannosaurus rex, so they never met. Phrases: «a stegosaurus skeleton», «back plates», «tail spikes».

### Examples

- The stegosaurus had plates on its back and spikes on its tail. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x1)
- Stegosaurus ate ferns and low plants. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x2)
- We saw a stegosaurus skeleton at the Natural History Museum. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x3)
- A stegosaurus was as long as a bus. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x4)
- Its brain was surprisingly small, about the size of a dog's. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x5)
- The plates may have helped it warm up or show off to other stegosauruses. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x6)
- My little brother's favourite dinosaur toy is a green stegosaurus. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stegosaurus/#x7)

### Note

Plural «stegosauruses» (sometimes «stegosauri»). As a scientific name it is written with a capital: Stegosaurus. Say STEG-uh-SORE-us. Myth: it did not have a second brain in its hip. Trap: stegosaurus and T. rex lived millions of years apart; more time separates them than separates T. rex from us.

## On Mova

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