Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Chameleon |
ChameleonNoun1. A faint constellation in the polar region of the southern hemisphere near Apus and Mensa. 2. Lizard of Africa and Madagascar able to change skin color and having a projectile tongue. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Chameleon" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1591. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Bible | Chameleon a species of lizard which has the faculty of changing the colour of its skin. It is ranked among the unclean animals in Lev. 11:30, where the Hebrew word so translated is _coah_ (R.V., "land crocodile"). In the same verse the Hebrew _tanshemeth_, rendered in Authorized Version "mole," is in Revised Version "chameleon," which is the correct rendering. This animal is very common in Egypt and in the Holy Land, especially in the Jordan valley. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of seeing your swetheart{sic} wearing a chameleon chained to her, shows she will prove faithless to you if by changing she can better her fortune. Ordinarily chameleons signify deceit and self advancement, even though others suffer. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Chameleon You are a chameleon, i.e. very changeable- shifting according to the opinions of others, as the chameleon changes its hue to that of contiguous objects. "As the chameleon, who is known To have no colours of its own, But borrows from his neighbour's hue, His white or black, his green or blue." Prior Pliny tells us that Democritus wrote a book on superstitions connected with the chameleon. C'est un cameleon. One who shifts his opinions according to circumstances; a vicar of Bray. To chameleonise is to change one's opinions as a chameleon changes its colour. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Chamaeleons Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Squamata Sub-order: Sauria Family: Chamaeleonidae For the constellation see Chamaeleon
Introduction
Chameleons are small to mid-size reptiles, and one of the best known lizard families. They are famous for their ability to change their colour but also because of their elongated tongue and their eyes which can be moved independently of each other. The name Chameleon means "earth lion" and is derived from the Greek words chamai (on the ground, on the earth) an leon (lion).This is a rather old lizard family since fossil records are known from as early as the early Tertiary
Distribution and Habitat
The main distribution of Chameleons is Africa and Madagascar, although some species are also found in parts of southern Europe, Sri Lanka, India and Asia Minor. Different members of this family inhabit all kinds of biotopes like tropical and montane rain forests, savannahs and sometimes semideserts and steppes. Chameleons are mostly arboreal and are often found on smaller bushes and shrubs rather than on taller trees. Some species, however, live on the ground under foliage.
Behaviour
Chameleons are not active hunters but rather sit motionless for hours and wait for a prey to pass by. They mainly feed on different arthropods and small vertebrates. Chameleons live mostly solitary.
Change of Colour
Some Chameleon species are able to change their body colour, which made them one of the most famous lizard families. Contrary to popular belief, this change of colour is not an adaptation to the surroundings but rather an expression of the physical and physiological condition of the lizard. The skin colour is changed under influence of mood, light and temperature. The skin colour also plays an important part in communication and rivalry fights.Chameleons have specialized cells that lie in two layers under the chameleon's transparent outer skin. These cells, which are called chromatophores, contain yellow and red pigments. Below these chromatophores are cell layers that have white and blue pigments. A layer of brown melanin is situated even deeper under these blue and white light reflecting cells. All these different pigment cells can change their size (expand or contract), thereby influencing the colour of light which is reflected.
Classification of Chamaeleonidae
Family Chamaeleonidae
- Subfamily Chamaeleoninae (typical chameleons)
- Genus Bradypodion
- Genus Calumma
- Genus Chamaeleo
- Genus Furcifer
- Subfamily Brookesiinae (dwarf chameleons)
- Genus Brookesia
- Genus Rhampholeon
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Chameleon."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Chameleon is a fictional villain in Spider-Man. He is a mimic and master of disguise.
Vital statistics
Special Abilities: The Chameleon's epidermous and pigmentation have been surgically and possibly mutagenically altered so that he can take on the appearance of any person at will.
- Name: Dmitri Smerdyakov
- Hieght: Variable
- Wieght: Variable
- Eyes: Variable
- Hair: Variable
- Intelligence Level: Normal or Greater
- Strength Level: Normal (possibly variable but not beyond human limitations)
- Endurance Level: Normal
- Speed Level: Normal
- Agility Level: Normal
- Stamina Level: Normal
- Reflexes Level: Normal
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Chameleon (comics)."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
CHAMELEON | English | Dynamic Software Migration between Cooperating Environments | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: ChameleonSynonym: chamaeleon (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Changeableness | Moon, Proteus, chameleon, quicksilver, shifting sands, harlequin, Cynthia of the minute, April showers; wheel of Fortune; transientness. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Chameleon |
| English words defined with "Chameleon": adaptative, adaptive, African chameleon ♦ Chamaeleo chamaeleon, Chamaeleo oweni ♦ horned chameleon ♦ Mineral chameleon ♦ Vermilinguia. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | Karma Karma Karma Karma Karma Chameleon (Karma Chameleon; performing artist: Culture Club) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Kooky Chameleon (1967) Café Chameleon (2000) Chameleon 3: Dark Angel (2000) The Chameleon (1989) Chameleon Street (1989) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | A chameleon / O. Herford. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Chameleon" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.41% of the time. "Chameleon" is used about 63 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.41% | 62 | 42,755 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.59% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 63 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "Chameleon": african chameleon ♦ american chameleon ♦ chameleon mineral ♦ chameleon tree frog ♦ horned chameleon ♦ mineral chameleon ♦ taffeta Chameleon. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Chameleon": chameleon-like. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "Chameleon"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | kameleon. (various references) | |
Arabic | حرباء, شخص متقلب. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | хамелеон. (various references) | |
Chinese | 蜥 (Eumeces latiscutatus, Rubus tokkura), 蜴 (Eumeces latiscutatus, fennel), 變色龍 , 变色蜥蜴 (chameleons). (various references) | |
Czech | chameleón. (various references) | |
Danish | kamaeleon. (various references) | |
Dutch | kameleon. (various references) | |
Esperanto | kameleono. (various references) | |
Farsi | حرباء(ج.ش.), سوسمارکوچک , ادم متلون المزاج ودمدمی . (various references) | |
Finnish | kameleontti. (various references) | |
French | caméléon. (various references) | |
German | chamäleon. (various references) | |
Greek | χαμαιλέων. (various references) | |
Hebrew | זקית. (various references) | |
Hungarian | kaméleon. (various references) | |
Indonesian | bunglon (opportunist, vacillator). (various references) | |
Italian | camaleonte. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | カポシ肉腫 (cam, camellia, camembert, cameo, camera, camera angle, camera position, camera rehearsal, camera reportage, camera work, camera-eye, cameraman, camomile, camouflage, CAMUS, collar, collarless, color, color arrangement, color box, color combination, color conditioning, color coordinator, color display, color dynamics, color ink, color marking pen, color mechanical tint, color planning, color rinse, color screentone, color spraypaint, colored, colored steel sheet, colorless, colour, comeback, cummerbund, French cognac, kapok, Kaposi sarcoma, kayak, younger members of the group). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | カメレオン . (various references) | |
Korean | 카멜 온 (chameleons). (various references) | |
Manx | kameelyan. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ameleonchay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | camaleão (género Chamaeleo), camaleão (lizard), vira-casaca (bolter, floater, ratcatcher, ratter, renegade, turncoat, weathercock). (various references) | |
Romanian | cameleon. (various references) | |
Russian | хамелеон. (various references) | |
Sepedi | leobu. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | kameleon. (various references) | |
Shona | rwavhi. (various references) | |
Spanish | camaleo/n, camaleón. (various references) | |
Swazi | lú-nwabú. (various references) | |
Swedish | kameleont. (various references) | |
Turkish | bukalemun. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | хамелеон. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người không kiên định. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | cameleon, Chamaeleo. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Language | Date | Source | Leviticus Chapter 11, Verse 30 |
| Greek (transliterated) | 250 BC | Septuagint | Mugalh kai camailewn kai kalabwthV kai saura kai aspalax |
| Latin | 405 | Vulgate | Migale et cameleon et stelio ac lacerta et talpa |
| Middle English | 1395 | Wyclif | A mygal, `that is a beeste born trecherows to bigile, and moost gloterous, a camelion, `that is a beeste varyed in to diuerse colours, after diuerse lokingis, and a stellioun, `that is a werme depeyntid as with sterris, and a lacert, `that is a serpent that is clepid a liserd, and a moldwerp. |
| Renaissance English | 1526 | Tyndale | The hedgehogge, stellio, the licerte, the snayle and the moule. |
| Jacobean English | 1611 | King James | And the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. |
| Victorian English | 1833 | Webster | And the ferret and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. |
| Basic English | 1964 | Ogden | And the ferret and the land crocodile and the lizard and the sand-lizard and the chameleon. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Leviticus Chapter 11, Verse 30 |
| Cebuano | Ug ang tuko, ug ang banghitaw, ug ang taluto, ug ang tabili, ug ang chameleon. |
| Chinese | 壁 虎 、 龍 子 、 守 宮 、 蛇 醫 、 蝘 " ． |
| Croatian | zidni macaklin, kameleon, daždevnjak, zelembaæ i tinšamet. |
| Danish | Anakaen, Koadyret, Letåen, Homedyret og Tinsjemetdyret. |
| Dutch | En de zwijnegel, en de krokodil, en de hagedis, en de slak, en de mol; |
| Finnish | anaka-eläin, kooah-eläin, letaa-eläin, hoomet-eläin ja kameleontti. |
| French | le hérisson, la grenouille, la tortue, le limaçon et le caméléon. |
| German | der Igel, der Molch, die Eidechse, die Blindschleiche und der Maulwurf; |
| Haitian Creole | zandolit, soud, mabouya, gongolo, aganman. |
| Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama | dan bingkarung dan tokeh dan kubin dan unam dan mondok. |
| Italian | il toporagno, la lucertola, il geco, il ramarro, il camaleonte. |
| Maori | Me te koka, me te korokotaera, me te mokomoko, me te moeone, me te kamiriona. |
| Norwegian | og pinnsvinet og jordrotten og padden og sneglen og kameleonen*. # <* Betydningen av de hebraiske navn er usikker.> |
| Portuguese | o musaranho, o crocodilo da água, a lagartixa, o lagarto e a toupeira. |
| Rumanian | ariciul, broasca, broasca yestoasq, melcul wi cameleonul. |
| Russian | БОБЛБ, ИБНЕМЕПО, МЕФББ, ИПНЕФ Й ФЙОЫЕНЕФ, -- |
| Swedish | anakan, koadjuret, letaan, hometdjuret och kameleonten. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "Chameleon": chameleonic, chameleonlike, chameleons. (additional references) | |
| |
"Chameleon" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Cameleon, Camelon, Camilion, chaceleon, chamelean, chameleion, chamelion, chamellion, chamelon, chameoleon, chamleon, Chapeltoun, Hameldon, kameleon. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "Chameleon" (pronounced khume"lēun) |
| 4 | -l ē u n | alien, galleon, herculean, mammalian, Napoleon. |
| 3 | -ē u n | accordion, agrarian, amphibian, arcadian, authoritarian, barbarian, bohemian, Campion, carrion, centenarian, centurion, champion, circadian, Clarion, collodion, comedian, contrarian, criterion, custodian, Cyprian, disciplinarian, draconian, egalitarian, equestrian, gorgonian, Guardian, halcyon, historian, humanitarian, hyperborean, lesbian, libertarian, librarian, majoritarian, median, mediterranean, meridian, nickelodeon, nonsectarian, oblivion, obsidian, octogenarian, Odeon, ovarian, pagurian, parliamentarian, pedestrian, planarian, plutonian, praetorian, presbyterian, proletarian, salutatorian, scorpion, sectarian, seminarian, septuagenarian, simian, subterranean, symbion, theologian, thespian, totalitarian, unitarian, utilitarian, utopian, valedictorian, valerian, vegetarian, veterinarian. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-e-e-h-l-m-n-o" | |
-2 letters: chalone, echelon, manhole. | |
-3 letters: achene, chelae, cleome, enamel, enhalo, enlace, lochan, manche, menace. | |
-4 letters: almeh, alone, amole, anele, anole, camel, cameo, canoe, celom, chela, chemo, clean, clone, comae, comal, enema, hance, haole, hemal, hence, lance, leach, leech, leman, lemon, leone, loach, mache, macho, macle, macon, mahoe, melon, mocha, mohel, nacho, ocean. | |
-5 letters: ache, acme. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-e-e-h-l-m-n-o" | |
+1 letter: chameleons. | |
+2 letters: chameleonic. | |
+3 letters: melancholies. | |
+4 letters: catecholamine, chameleonlike, encephalogram, mesencephalon, metencephalon, neurochemical, thermonuclear. | |
+5 letters: catecholamines, cholestyramine, encephalograms, metencephalons, methodicalness, myelencephalon, neurochemicals, rhombencephala. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Translations: Ancient | 13. Bible Trace 14. Abbreviations 15. Acronyms 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
