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Lizard vs Chameleon - What's the difference?

lizard | chameleon |

As nouns the difference between lizard and chameleon

is that lizard is any reptile of the order Squamata, usually having four legs, external ear openings, movable eyelids and a long slender body and tail while chameleon is a small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.

As an adjective chameleon is

describing something that changes color.

lizard

English

(wikipedia lizard)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any reptile of the order Squamata, usually having four legs, external ear openings, movable eyelids and a long slender body and tail.
  • (chiefly, in attributive use) Lizard skin, the skin of these reptiles.
  • * 1990 October 28, , Warner Bros.
    • Silver bells jingling from your black lizard boots, my baby / Silver foil to trim your wedding gown
  • (colloquial) An unctuous person.
  • (colloquial) A coward.

    • Derived terms

    {{der3, lang=en , legless lizard , lizard fish , lizard-skin , lizard snake , lizard stone , lounge lizard , sleeping lizard , stump-tailed lizard , true lizard , wall lizard , worm lizard}}

    chameleon

    English

    (wikipedia chameleon)

    Alternative forms

    * chamaeleon *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae , and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
  • A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
  • * 2014 , Michael White, " Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian , 8 September 2014:
    • He is a political chameleon , as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond.
  • (physics) A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.

    • Adjective

    (-)
  • Describing something that changes color.
    • The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

    References

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