tuatara
tu·a·ta·ra/tuːəˈtɑːɹə/noun
tuatara is a noun meaning “A reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-U-A-T-A-R-A and has 4 syllables (tu·a·ta·ra), and it appears about once in every 26 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of tuatara is tuataras.
What does tuatara mean?
noun
- 1
A reptile, Sphenodon punctatus, native to New Zealand, that resembles a lizard and is the only surviving specimen of the order Rhynchocephalia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce tuatara?
- /tuːəˈtɑːɹə/
Tuatara has 4 syllables, split tu·a·ta·ra in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-tuatara.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of tuatara
- tuataras plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is tuatara?
Tuatara appears about once in every 26 million words in written English, the 155,937th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Tuatara in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense reptile:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | sphénodon |
| German | Brückenechse |
| Spanish | tuátara, tuatara |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tuatara come from?
Borrowed from Māori tuatara.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).