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The word is derived by joining two Greek words together, as happens a lot in scientific names. The words are dino- from 'dienos' (powerful/terrible/fearful) and saur from 'sauros', a lizard. (source: A Dictionary of the Roots and Combining Forms of Scientific Words. Tim Williams)

At the very beginning, it comes from two Greek words meaning "terrible lizard", When they were first discovered, their large size made scientists believe that these reptiles were terribly fierce creatures. (Source, world book student dictionary)
The word dinosaur can be broken into 2 greek roots. The root deino which means terrible, and saur which means lizard. So the word dinosaur means terrible lizard.

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12y ago

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