How to Use echidna in a Sentence

echidna

noun
  • The chocolate echidnas, fish, and famed nougat make great gifts, too.
    — Riley Wilson, Travel + Leisure, 19 June 2026
  • Many of the species — like the koala, platypus and echidna — aren’t found anywhere else.
    — Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 3 Oct. 2025
  • The dead echidna was still whole when the tiger shark vomited it back up, with its spines and legs still intact.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 6 June 2024
  • All that remains of that branch of the family tree is the platypus and four species of echidna.
    — National Geographic, 30 July 2016
  • Then a volcanic eruption plops a curious soft echidna’s egg in his path.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 12 June 2026
  • The echidna — an egg-laying mammal that looks like a hedgehog with a long snout — has no nipples at all.
    — Elizabeth Preston, New York Times, 15 Apr. 2020
  • Neither Cookie nor the echidna talk.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 12 June 2026
  • Over time, echidnas transitioned to a land-dwelling lifestyle and may have lost the hollow melanosomes.
    — Ryan Brennan, Miami Herald, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Australia’s echidna, like the platypus, belongs to an odd group of mammals that lay eggs, known as monotremes.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN, 21 Jan. 2023
  • Egg-laying mammals, or the monotremes, which include the platypus and echidna, don’t.
    — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 11 June 2026
  • But, the incident with the echidna was not the only strange find during their research!
    — Melissa Cristina Marquez, Forbes, 28 Sep. 2024
  • For instance, monotremes such as the platypus and echidna belong to a unique and ancient class of mammals.
    — Gat Rauner, The Conversation, 13 Aug. 2024
  • The echidna’s eyes were irritated by hearth-smoke, so Afek told it to go to the high forest.
    — Tim Flannery, The New York Review of Books, 3 Dec. 2020
  • Besides their keen sense of smell, echidnas’ spines are a key protection mechanism.
    — Carolyn Hagler, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 June 2023
  • Now, a team of scientists has discovered some of the strategies the echidna employs to stay cool.
    — Byjack Tamisiea, science.org, 17 Jan. 2023
  • While the echidna calmly walks across the dirt, the wombat starts flinging dirt and spinning in frantic circles.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Sep. 2024
  • That was not the case with his latest character, a surly red cartoon echidna named Knuckles.
    — New York Times, 8 Apr. 2022
  • This category includes the platypus and four species of echidnas.
    — Kevin Omland, The Conversation, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Australia’s echidna has developed a curious way to cool off — blowing bubbles out of its beaklike snout.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 18 Jan. 2023
  • The echidna, on the other hand, has a more restricted territory.
    — Marta Balaga, Variety, 14 June 2023
  • Only two types of monotremes, the platypus and echidna, still exist, but more monotreme species were around about 100 million years ago.
    — Elizabeth Rayne, Ars Technica, 7 June 2024
  • The common ancestor of platypuses and echidnas is believed to have been aquatic.
    — Ryan Brennan, Charlotte Observer, 20 Mar. 2026
  • Despite being one of the world’s oldest surviving species, the echidna is also thought to be sensitive to heat.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 18 Jan. 2023
  • Other notable animals include the platypus and echidna, both mammals that lay eggs.
    — Andrea Rumbaugh, Houston Chronicle, 12 Feb. 2018
  • Monotremes, such as the platypus and echidna, took refuge in Australia and New Guinea, where a scant five species remain today.
    — Steve Brusatte, Scientific American, 1 June 2022
  • With a long, sticky tongue, a penchant for snacking on ants and termites, and a body covered in barbless quills called spines, the echidna is also known as a spiny anteater.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 18 Jan. 2023
  • One side would go up into the Cyclops Mountains to search for an echidna while the other party would go to the ocean to find a marlin.
    — Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Nov. 2023
  • Plans are to introduce Shaw, a male echidna animal ambassador, to a female.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 June 2019
  • In future studies, Cooper and her colleagues plan to model how much heat the echidna loses as its snot evaporates and its spines shift.
    — Byjack Tamisiea, science.org, 17 Jan. 2023
  • None of those species — including the echidna, the platypus’s closest egg-laying relative — showed hollow melanosomes.
    — Ryan Brennan, Charlotte Observer, 20 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'echidna.' 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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