What does biped mean?
Word: Biped
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Biped means an animal that walks on two legs. It is a word used mostly in science.
Word origin: From Latin bipes, built from bi- and pes (ped-).
How do you spell biped?
Syllables: bi - ped
Tricky part: Pupils who know centipede and millipede often add an e to the end, but biped stops at the d.
Watch out for: bipede, bipid
Memory tip: Stop at the d: unlike centipede and millipede, biped has no tail of an e trailing after it.
Biped in a sentence
Example 1: Fossil footprints show that some dinosaurs were bipeds.
Example 2: A toddler becomes a steady biped some time around the first birthday.
Example 3: Our teacher asked us to list five bipeds we might spot in the park.
Fun Fact
The matching adjective is bipedal, and robot makers use it too: a bipedal robot is built to step along on legs instead of rolling on wheels.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) hybrid
b) byped
c) bypass
d) bisect
Show answer
b) byped. Hybrid, bypass and bisect are all correct; the two-legged animal is spelt with bi at the start.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option to complete the sentence:
In biped, the Latin part ped- means ___.
a) foot
b) head
c) tail
d) wing
Show answer
a) foot. Latin pes, ped- means foot, the root also found in pedal and pedestrian.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with their meanings:
1. biped 2. quadruped 3. reptile a. an animal that walks on four legs b. a cold-blooded animal such as a snake or a lizard c. a creature that stands and moves on a single pair of limbs
a) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
b) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
c) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
d) 1-c, 2-b, 3-a
Show answer
a) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b. The quadruped has four legs to stand on, the reptile is cold-blooded, and the biped manages with one pair of limbs.
Word Tally
How many words are misspelt in the given sentence?
On the nature trail, Kabir explained that a heron is a bipead, while the squirrel racing up the oak tree is a quadruped.
a) 0
b) 2
c) 1
d) 3
Show answer
c) 1. Only bipead is wrong: the animal word has no a, while heron, squirrel and quadruped are all spelt correctly.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these animals is a biped?
a) a camel
b) a flamingo
c) a tortoise
d) a crocodile
Show answer
b) a flamingo
2. If a cartoon cat suddenly became a biped, it would start to ___.
a) fly over the rooftops
b) climb trees using its claws
c) swim deep under the water
d) walk about on its back legs
Show answer
d) walk about on its back legs
