Meaning & use
a pollywog
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableinformalAmerican
A young frog or toad that has a tail and lives in water before it grows into an adult.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a pollywog' or 'two pollywogs'.
Patterns
- a pollywog in the pond
- catch pollywogs
The children caught a pollywog in the pond and put it in a jar.
A pollywog slowly grows legs and loses its tail as it becomes a frog.
We saw hundreds of pollywogs swimming near the edge of the lake.
Word forms
| plural | pollywogs |
|---|
Common combinations
- a pollywog turns into a frog
- Over the summer, a pollywog turns into a frog.
- catch pollywogs
- Kids love to catch pollywogs in shallow water.
- a jar of pollywogs
- He brought a jar of pollywogs to school for show-and-tell.
- pollywog stage
- The pollywog stage lasts a few weeks before the legs appear.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tadpole
- This is the standard word for the same creature; pollywog is more informal and mainly American.
Commonly confused: a pollywog or polliwog?
a pollywog vs polliwog
This is just a variant spelling of pollywog; both are accepted, but pollywog is more common in American English.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pollywog' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Pollywog' means a young frog or toad, so it makes sense to say it will grow into a frog. The other options describe impossible actions for a pollywog.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a pollywog”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.