Noun

Singular turtle

Plural turtles

turtle (plural turtles)

1. A land or marine reptile having a protective shell (made up of a carapace and a plastron) enclosing its body.
2. (Australian, British) A sea turtle.
3. (military) An Ancient Roman attack method, where the shields held by the soldiers hide them, not only left, right, front and back, but also from above.
4. (computing) A type of robot having a domed case (and so resembling the reptile), used in education, especially for making line drawings by means of a computer program.
5. (computing) An on-screen cursor that serves the same function as a turtle for drawing.
   • 1997, Brian Harvey, Computer Science Logo Style: Symbolic computing

     Depending on which version of Logo you have, the turtle may look like an actual animal with a head and four legs or — as in Berkeley Logo — it may be represented as a triangle.

Derived terms

• African helmeted turtle
• Afro-American sideneck turtle
• Alabama red-bellied turtle
• alligator turtle, alligator-turtle
• American turtle
• Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles
• Arakan forest turtle
• Australian short-necked turtle
• Austro-American sideneck turtle
• awkward turtle
• bastard turtle
• big-headed turtle
• black marsh turtle
• black turtle bean
• Blanding's turtle
• bog turtle
• box turtle, box-turtle
• chicken turtle, chicken-turtle
• common snakeneck turtle
• cooter turtle
• diamond-backed turtle
• dragon turtle
• eastern long-neck turtle
• Fitzroy River turtle
• flatback turtle
• Florida redbelly turtle
• Fly River turtle
• golden coin turtle
• gopher turtle
• greaved turtle
• Greenland turtle

• green turtle
• have a turtle's head
• hawk-billed turtle, hawksbill sea turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, hawksbill turtle
• horned turtle
• land turtle
• leaf turtle
• leather turtle
• leatherback turtle
• leather-turtle
• leathery turtle
• loggerhead turtle, logger-headed turtle
• lyre turtle
• Madagascan big-headed turtle
• map turtle
• marine turtle
• marsh turtle
• mata mata turtle, matamata turtle
• Mary River turtle
• mock turtle
• mock turtle soup
• mud turtle
• musk turtle
• New Guinea snakeneck turtle
• Olive Ridley turtle
• painted turtle
• pancake turtle
• pig-nosed turtle, pig-nose turtle, pignose turtle
• pitted-shelled turtle

• plateless turtle
• Plymouth redbelly turtle
• pond turtle
• purple turtler
• red-bellied turtle
• river turtle
• roofed turtle
• sea turtle, sea-turtle
• side-necked turtle
• silver stater with a turtle
• snake-eating turtle
• snake-necked turtle
• snapping turtle, snapping-turtle
• soft-shelled turtle, soft-shell turtle, softshell turtle
• spiny turtle
• spotted turtle
• toad-headed turtle
• twisted-necked turtle
• tortoise-shell turtle
• trunk turtle, trunk-turtle
• turn the turtle
• turn turtle
• turning turtles
• turtle-back, turtleback
• turtle bean
• turtleburger
• turtle-corral
• turtle cowrie, turtle cowry
• turtle-crab
• turtle-crawl
• turtle-deck

• turtledom
• turtle-egging
• turtle excluder device
• turtle-footed
• turtle-frolic
• turtle graphics
• turtle grass, turtle-grass
• turtle-head, turtlehead
• turtle hull
• turtle-insect
• turtle-kraal
• turtle neck, turtle-neck, turtleneck
• turtle peg, turtle-peg
• turtle-press
• turtler
• turtle racing
• turtles all the way down
• turtle shell
• turtle ship
• turtle soup
• turtle stone
• turtle-shell
• turtle-soup
• turtle-stone
• turtlet
• turtle trade
• turtle-twine
• turtling
• turtly
• water turtle
• western swamp turtle
• wood turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines (the crown group of the superorder Chelonia), characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield. "Turtle" may either refer to the Testudines as a whole, or to particular Testudines which make up a form taxon that is not monophyletic—see also sea turtle, terrapin, tortoise, and the discussion below.

The order Testudines includes both extant (living) and extinct species. The earliest known turtles date from 215 million years ago, making turtles one of the oldest reptile groups and a more ancient group than lizards and snakes. About 300 species are alive today, and some are highly endangered.

Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms—varying their internal temperature according to the ambient environment, commonly called cold-blooded. However, leatherback sea turtle have noticeably higher body temperature than surrounding water because of their high metabolic rate.

Like other amniotes (reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals), they breathe air and do not lay eggs underwater, although many species live in or around water. The largest turtles are aquatic.