carnivorous
Americanadjective
-
flesh-eating.
A dog is a carnivorous animal.
- Synonyms:
- predacious, predatory
-
of the carnivores.
adjective
-
(esp of animals) feeding on flesh
-
(of plants such as the pitcher plant and sundew) able to trap and digest insects and other small animals
-
of or relating to the Carnivora
-
informal aggressively ambitious or reactionary
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of carnivorous
1640–50; < Latin carnivorus, equivalent to carni- (combining form of carō flesh) + -vorus -vorous
Explanation
Vegetables? Forget it. If you're into eating meat, meat and more meat, then you're carnivorous. Not surprisingly, the adjective carnivorous can be traced back to the Latin word for "flesh." Carnivorous eaters get their fill of other animals, so they've also got a reputation for being savage or predatory. So anyone who stalks around like a lion on the hunt could also be described as carnivorous, even if they're a card-carrying vegetarian.
Vocabulary lists containing carnivorous
Mockingbird
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The Sea of Monsters
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for August 14–August 20, 2021
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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.
Carnivorous plants have long captured popular imagination, portrayed to exaggeration in cult classics such as The Addams Family and Little Shop of Horrors as meat-eating monsters.
From National Geographic • Feb. 5, 2024
Carnivorous dinosaurs lived in ecosystems rich with both living and dead prey.
From Science Daily • Nov. 1, 2023
Carnivorous fish have difficulty digesting carbohydrates, so researchers tried various combinations of plant fats and proteins, including those found in soybeans.
From Scientific American • May 7, 2022
Carnivorous invertebrates and vertebrates have short digestive tracts that produce meat-digesting enzymes, but lack enzymes that break down plant cellulose.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2018
Carnivorous birds when confined are extremely sterile, whilst most carnivorous mammals, except plantigrades, are moderately fertile.
From The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication — Volume 2 by Darwin, Charles
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.
