echolocation
noun
echo·lo·ca·tion
| \ ˌe-kō-lō-ˈkā-shən
\
\
Definition of echolocation
: a physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects (such as prey) by sound waves reflected back to the emitter (such as a bat) from the objects
Examples of echolocation in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Actually, bats have supersharp night vision, using echolocation, a form of natural sonar, to find their way around. — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, "A well-turned simile can make us happy as a clam," 24 Aug. 2019 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, "The impressive luna moth and preparing for a bio-diverse yard," 22 Aug. 2019 Advocates say vessel noise interferes with the echolocation the orcas use to hunt. — USA TODAY, "‘Stranger’ tourists, Phish and the plague, kinkajou attack: News from around our 50 states," 22 Aug. 2019 He and co-author Xiaoyan Yin, a doctoral student in his lab, pursued two methods of testing whether the ears might actually move fast enough to produce Doppler shifts of their own—and what that might mean for echolocation. — Richard Conniff, Scientific American, "In the Wiggle of an Ear, a Surprising Insight into Bat Sonar," 17 June 2019 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, "This animal has the biggest ears on Earth (relative to size)," 12 Apr. 2019 Orcas find their food by echolocation, and vessel disturbance hurts their ability to find food. — Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, "Another southern resident orca is ailing — and at least three whales are pregnant," 25 Sep. 2018 This switch between eavesdropping and echolocation is pretty intuitive. — William Herkewitz, Popular Mechanics, "When Humans Make Too Much Noise, Bats Just Change How They Hunt," 15 Sep. 2016 The beasts tend to make clicking and buzzing sounds while in the deep sea, about 700 to 2,000 feet down, and buzzed quite a bit in one particular fjord, likely using echolocation while hunting shrimp and cod. — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, "Researchers Record the Sounds of the Elusive Narwhal," 15 June 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'echolocation.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more