Arabian oryx

American  

[uh-rey-bee-uhn awr-iks] / əˈreɪ bi ən ˈɔr ɪks /

noun

plural

Arabian oryxes,

plural

Arabian oryx

1. a large antelope, Oryx leucoryx, the smallest of the oryxes, with a white coat, conspicuous shoulder bump, and nearly straight horns that can reach a length of 30 inches (76 centimeters) on both the males and females: the only oryx native to Arabia rather than Africa, in 2011 it became the first animal to have rebounded to a status of vulnerable after having been classified, in 1972, as extinct in the wild.

---

Etymology

Origin of Arabian oryx

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Spread across the property were 1,000 sheep, eight Arabian oryx, four horses, two camels and one falcon — what Mr. Al Misned called his working farm — cultivated over the past decade.

From New York Times • Dec. 10, 2022

Przewalski’s horse and the Arabian oryx are among successful examples.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 2, 2022

The Arabian oryx, an antelope native to the Arabian Peninsula, went extinct in the wild in the 1970s and then was reintroduced into the wild from zoo populations.

From New York Times • Jun. 11, 2021

Further reintroductions have since taken place in Saudi Arabia and Israel and iIt is estimated that there are now more than 1,000 Arabian oryx in the wild.

From The Guardian • Feb. 2, 2020

The Bronx Zoo hopes to perform the same feat with a rare Arabian oryx.

From Time Magazine Archive