herbivorous
Americanadjective
adjective
-
(of animals) feeding on grass and other plants
-
informal liberal, idealistic, or nonmaterialistic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of herbivorous
Explanation
A buffalo, a goose, a grasshopper, and a stegosaurus sit down to eat dinner. This isn’t a joke, it’s an example of herbivorous creatures who exist on a diet of plant life only. Herbivorous comes from the Latin word herba, which means “green plants,” and that’s what herbivorous animals eat all the time: grass, leaves, and other plants. Some massive and strong animals actually have peaceful herbivorous eating habits, like gorillas and hippopotamuses. The opposite of herbivorous is carnivorous, which describes meat-eating beasts like lions, sharks, crocodiles, and your uncle Marvin who eats nothing but steak all day long.
Vocabulary lists containing herbivorous
100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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2014 Vocabulary Video Contest (A-L)
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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.
In the wild, wolf packs primarily subsist on wild ungulates - hoofed, typically herbivorous, animals such as deer, cows and pigs.
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026
The region hosts the world's second-largest population of dugongs -- herbivorous marine mammals known as "sea cows" that are listed as vulnerable -- with an estimated 5,000 to 7,500 individuals.
From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026
The findings place it close to the earliest roots of the European herbivorous dinosaur group Rhabdodontidae.
From Science Daily • Feb. 3, 2026
They had previously been characterized as entirely herbivorous, like gorillas, Goodall observed them hunting, killing and eating small mammals such as bush pigs and colobus monkeys, by any standard a complicated collaborative enterprise.
From Salon • Oct. 1, 2025
That plant carbon goes on to form the body of the herbivorous animals that eat the plants, and of the carnivorous animals that eat those herbivorous animals.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
