aquarium

Meanings

1. A glass tank where fish and other water animals are kept.
2. A building where many water animals are shown to the public.

Example sentences

• "We visited the aquarium and saw a shark."

  Level A2, Meaning 2

• "She keeps tropical fish in a small aquarium."

  Level A2, Meaning 1

• "The aquarium needs cleaning every week."

  Level B1, Meaning 1

• "The new aquarium has a tunnel under the water."

  Level B1, Meaning 2

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• zoo : A zoo keeps land animals as well as many others. An aquarium keeps mainly fish and other water animals.
• fish tank : A fish tank is a small container for fish. An aquarium can be small or very large.

Word family and forms

Forms: aquariums, aquaria

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "aquarium".

• a fish aquarium
• visit an aquarium
• a public aquarium
• clean the aquarium
• a large aquarium
• an aquarium tank

Origin

Aquarium was formed in English in the 1840s as a blend of Latin aquarius, meaning of or for water, from aqua, and the word vivarium, a place where living animals are kept. It names a place that holds water and the living things in it.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Aquarium has aqua, the Latin word for water, and the ending -arium, a place for something.

Test yourself

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