TOEFL® Vocabulary ebook

Definition: (Of a plant or animal) growing or living in or near water:

Example sentences:

• Aquatic algae can detect orange, green and blue light because they have receptors to detect light on the red and far red of the spectrum, which are the common wavelengths in the air.
• Aquatic ecosystems are divided into two major groups: marine, or saltwater, and freshwater, also known as nonsaline.
• If human consumption outpaces natural restoration, the quality and quantity of remaining aquatic habitat suffer
• Aquatic mammals are well adapted to life in the water with physical characteristics such as flippers, webbed feet, paddlelike tails and streamlined bodies.

Bioluminescent is the adjective of the word "bioluminecence". Bioluminescence is light created by the body of a living creature, for example by some sea creatures and insects such as fireflies. Bioluminescent animals are able to emit their own light. The ability to emit their own light is called bioluminecence.

Definition: A hard stony substance secreted by certain marine coelenterates as an external skeleton, typically forming large reefs in warm seas

Example sentences:

• The rest of the island is characterized by beautiful sandy beaches, coral reefs, warm clear blue waters and idyllic islands.

Fungi is the plural form of fungus. Fungus is any of various types of organisms that get their food from decaying material or other living things, like mushrooms.

Definition: A microorganism, especially a bacterium causing disease or fermentation

Example sentences:

• A virus is a parasite, which needs a host cell to live in, and a microbe is a bacterium, which is a living cell in its own right.

Definition: A cephalopod mollusc with eight sucker-bearing arms, a soft sac-like body, strong beak-like jaws, and no internal shell.

Example sentences:

• The harbor seal's diet consists of fish, cephalopods, such as octopus and squid, and crustaceans.

Definition: A solitary or colonial sedentary form of a coelenterate such as a sea anemone, typically having a columnar body with the mouth uppermost surrounded by a ring of tentacles. Polyp can also mean a small mass of tissue that grows in the body.

Example sentences:

• Most hydrozoans alternate between a polyp and a medusa stage - they spend part of their lives as ‘jellyfish’ which are hard to distinguish from scyphozoan jellyfish.
• A coral structure is actually composed of hundreds or thousands of tiny animals like sea anemones growing together as a colony. These tiny coral polyps are the builders of the coral reef. Their tiny calcium shells have accumulated over thousands of years to form the largest living structures in the world. 

Sea anemones are a soft, brightly coloured sea creature that looks like a flower and often lives on rocks under the water. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flowering plant.

Example sentences:

• Sea anemones are  predatory marine animals.
• Sea anemones are characterized by a symmetrical body, usually with stinging tentacles, and a central mouth. 
• A coral structure is actually composed of hundreds or thousands of tiny animals like sea anemones growing together as a colony. These tiny coral polyps are the builders of the coral reef. Their tiny calcium shells have accumulated over thousands of years to form the largest living structures in the world.