Agamids

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of a family of non-venomous lizards found mainly in Africa, Asia, and Australia, characterized by well-developed limbs and often colorful skin
2. Lizards belonging to a diverse family distributed across warm regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, typically having four functional legs and lacking venom glands
3. Non-venomous reptiles of the agamid family, commonly known as dragon lizards or fence lizards, recognized by their varied coloration and active hunting behavior

Etymology: Agamids are lizards of the family Agamidae, and the plural is the form of "agamid", a word coined in the 19th century from the Greek "agamos", meaning "unmarried" or "without a spouse" (from "a-", "not", and "gamos", "marriage"). The name was originally a term for a family of Old World lizards, and its choice reflects the classical habit of building scientific names from Greek roots. Early naturalists needed a label for a group of lizards, and "agamos" was drawn from the vocabulary of ancient Greek rather than from any description of the animals' behaviour.

Synonyms: lizards