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• hippo
  hippo

  noun

  hippopotamus.
• Hippo
  Hippo

  noun

  Hippo Regius.
• hippo-
  hippo-

  a combining form appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “horse” (hippodrome ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (hippology ).

hippo

¹ American  

[hip-oh] / ˈhɪp oʊ /

noun

Informal.

• hippos
  plural

1. hippopotamus.

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Hippo ² American  

[hip-oh] / ˈhɪp oʊ /

noun

1. Hippo Regius.

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hippo- ³ American  

1. a combining form appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “horse” (hippodrome ); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (hippology ).

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hippo British  

/ ˈhɪpəʊ /

noun

1. short for hippopotamus

2. an armoured police car

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hippos
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of hippo¹

By shortening

Origin of hippo-³

< Greek: combining form of híppos; cognate with Latin equus, Old Irish ech, Old English eoh, Sanskrit aśvas, Lithuanian ašvà

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Explanation

A hippo is a very large African mammal that lives both in and out of the water. Adult hippos can weigh well over 3,000 pounds. Hippos are the third-largest land mammals (after elephants and rhinos), and of the three, they are by far the most aggressive and territorial. These gray, hairless, barrel-shaped animals resemble enormous pigs, but they're more closely related to whales and dolphins. Hippo is shorthand for hippopotamus, a word that derives from the Greek ho hippos potamios, "the horse of the river."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hippo Hippo hippo- hippos

The holes reminded 4-year-old Uri of a hippo he’d seen at the zoo, which opened its maw “like a deep cave” to reveal enormous teeth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

The hippo liked it there, so it took a while to extract the animal from the muddy waters to the delight of the locals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

McDonald’s soon followed, launching in 1979 its Happy Meal, which came with a free circus animal trinket — a lion, elephant, hippo or bear.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Craig Robinson joins the cast as Atlas, a cheerful talking GPS hippo toy, and Ernie Hudson arrives as Combat Carl, alongside Shelby Rabara as Snappy, an excitable toy camera.

From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026

Near the feet of each god or goddess was an animal meant to represent them—a heron, a crocodile, a jackal, a serpent, a dove, and a hippo.

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

At Mitsuwa Marketplace, the sprawling Japanese supermarket outside Chicago, Pastry House Hippo sells a frankfurter inside a beautiful yeasty shell, striped with ketchup.

From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026

In northeastern Annaba -- formerly the ancient Roman city of Hippo -- Leo will visit vestiges of the city's historical past, as well as a reception centre run by Catholic nuns for impoverished elderly people.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

He abandoned his secular ambitions, returned to Africa and became the bishop of the city of Hippo Regius.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

Dug’s head is so massive that, with the rest of his body mostly underwater, he resembled a blond, furry Hippo cutting through the water’s surface.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2025

Edward thought that he would be able to persuade the Loango boys to carry the "loads" back to the base-camp at Hippo Pool.

From The Fire-Gods A Tale of the Congo by Charles Gilson

Lastly, he was to wind them up by appearing in his favourite character of Mr. William Button, of Tooley Street, in 'the highly novel and laughable hippo- comedietta of The Tailor's Journey to Brentford.'

From Hard Times by Charles Dickens

The prefix hippo- comes from the Greek word for "horse".

From The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 by Edmund Spenser

He has used giraffes, hippos, rhinos, camels and zebras, and now has both bisons and elephants at the Great Moscow Circus, which opened during the Soviet era.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

In the latest outbreak in the Munyamadzi Game Management Area, in Muchinga province, Zambia's Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit said 46 hippos, eight elephants, five buffaloes and one crocodile had died since July.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Speaking in four different languages, Pepe shares its impressions about being uprooted from its African homeland and on the power dynamics among the hippos once in South America.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2025

Judy, the first rabbit to join the city's police force, has proven to her macho colleagues — buffaloes, hippos, and warthogs — that she deserves her place in the investigative department.

From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025

They looked peaceful enough, but they were huge—die size of hippos.

From "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan

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