How to Use echolocation in a Sentence
echolocation
noun-
Bats use echolocation to hunt for their meals, and moths are often on the menu.
—Karen Hopkin, Scientific American, 21 July 2021
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The noise can drown out echolocation pings necessary to find food and mates.
—Christina Couch, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 June 2020
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About half of all living bat species have cleft palates—a feature that may be tied to bat echolocation.
—Riley Black, Scientific American, 9 Sep. 2023
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The ears are equipped for echolocation, and aye-ayes are the largest nocturnal primates in the world, Hartstone-Rose says.
—Joshua Rapp Learn, Smithsonian, 22 Oct. 2019
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Like bats, the dolphins use echolocation to forage for prey in the cloudy waters of the Orinoco and Amazon River basins.
—Elizabeth Gamillo, Discover Magazine, 4 Aug. 2023
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The Clicker is forced to use its titular clicking sounds as a form of echolocation to find prey.
—Nick Romano, EW.com, 17 Feb. 2023
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The Idalus herois tiger moth produces clicks to jam the natural sonar of bats, which use echolocation to track down prey.
—Liz Langley, National Geographic, 29 Oct. 2016
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The echolocation abilities of bats and whales, though different in their details, rely on the same changes to the same gene - Prestin.
—Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 25 Jan. 2010
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The whales emit rapid clicking sounds to use echolocation, rather than sight, to communicate and hunt.
—Alex Demarban, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Mar. 2021
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The constant drone of boat noise interferes with the whales’ echolocation and ability to hunt.
—Julia O’Malley, New York Times, 19 July 2023
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River dolphins, such as those that live in the Amazon River, make even greater use of echolocation.
—Michael B. Habib, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2022
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Some animals, like toothed whales, use echolocation to find their prey.
—Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 June 2022
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The fungus sprouts from its host’s head, like a grotesque mushroom, blinding them over time and forcing them to use echolocation to attack.
—Kalhan Rosenblatt, NBC News, 30 Jan. 2023
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These mammals use rapid-fire echolocation, a sign of hunting, when the fishers are casting.
—Byscience News Staff, science.org, 2 Feb. 2023
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Dolphins have a much wider echolocation span that exceeds 300 feet.
—Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 12 Oct. 2023
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Later the moth’s wing eye spots confuse predators, while its long tails may have evolved to confuse the radar-like echolocation of hungry bats.
—Ellen Nibali, baltimoresun.com, 22 Aug. 2019
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Let’s find bats night hike For age 6 and older, learn about bats using a detector and an echolocation.
—Washington Post, 31 May 2017
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Dolphins and bats have their own, more complete versions of this echolocation.
—Helen Czerski, WSJ, 23 Sep. 2022
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The fungus takes over victims’ nervous systems, rips through their eyes, and they’re forced to use echolocation to feast on human flesh.
—Jordan Moreau, Variety, 23 Oct. 2022
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These pressure sensors seem to enable a kind of tactile echolocation: With their beaks plunged deep into the mud and sand, the shorebirds can sense the movement of prey.
—Jim Robbins, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Jan. 2022
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Many predators rely on echolocation to find prey, and those echoes bounce off of shells clear as a bell, making the creature easier to find.
—Colin Dickey, New Republic, 21 Sep. 2017
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Large ears actually have little to do with echolocation, the bat's built-in sonar that sends out sound waves and detects the echo bouncing off a prey item, such as a moth.
—Liz Langley, National Geographic, 12 Apr. 2019
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The information from this process of echolocation tells the flying mammals the precise path of their fast-moving food.
—Emily Willingham, Scientific American, 12 Nov. 2018
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For age 6 and older, learn about bats using a detector and an echolocation.
—Washington Post, 31 May 2017
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The bats’ super-powered volume helps them use echolocation to zero in on small, swift insect meals.
—Jessica Boddy, Popular Science, 3 Feb. 2020
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And bats that use echolocation have an impressive, seven-octave vocal range to match their sound needs, the researchers said.
—Zoe Sottile, CNN, 29 Nov. 2022
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Using echolocation, the hosts descend on their guests, trying to infect them with boring chitchat.
—Nina Sharma, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2023
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Orcas seek and find their prey by echolocation, which can be overwhelmed by the racket of container ships and whale-watch boats and other vessels.
—Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, 28 June 2017
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Residents hunt in large groups using echolocation, and transients hunt silently in small groups.
—Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Mar. 2024
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Swiftlets are fast-flying, insect-eating birds that can cover vast distances in a day, using echolocation to navigate in low-light environments.
—Muktita Suhartono Nyimas Laula, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'echolocation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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