German shepherd

American

[jur-muhn shep-erd] / ˈdʒɜr mən ˈʃɛp ərd /

noun

one of a breed of large shepherd dogs having a coat ranging in color from gray to brindled, black-and-tan, or black, used especially in police work and as a guide for the blind.

German shepherd British

noun

another name for Alsatian

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of German shepherd

1930–35; shepherd probably as translation of German Schäferhund

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The Bidens tried again with Commander, a German shepherd puppy who joined them in December 2021, but he was also gone by October 2023 after at least 24 documented biting incidents.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 1, 2026

Elliot: I've got two dogs - a sausage dog and a German shepherd.

From BBC • May 2, 2026

She had faith in me, so I reluctantly packed up my stuff and moved to Santa Monica with Gus, my German shepherd.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

"Finn's law" was named after German shepherd Finn, who suffered near-fatal injuries as he protected PC Dave Wardell from an attacker in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 2016.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2026

The beam searches out the pine tree, the fencing, the lean-to....And then I see this big German shepherd, mean as nails, hunched over Shiloh there on the ground.

From "Shiloh" by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023