hippo
noun
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hippo
1 American
[hip-oh]
/ ˈhɪp oʊ /
noun
Informal.
hippos
plural
Hippo
2
American
[hip-oh]
/ ˈhɪp oʊ /
noun
hippo-
3
American
hippo
British
/ ˈhɪpəʊ /
noun
-
short for hippopotamus
-
an armoured police car
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A baby hippo found desperately nudging its dead mother at a lake in Kenya over the weekend is now being hand-reared at a wildlife sanctuary after being rescued.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
Sotheby’s expected its Lalanne hippo copper bar cart to sell for up to $10 million last month.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Goat, hippo and duck-shaped hot air balloons floated in clear blue skies over war-ravaged Myanmar this week in a rare opportunity for escapism.
From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2025
"Therefore, we should re-analyze other continental European hippo fossils traditionally attributed to the last interglacial period."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2025
But I never really trusted them, and whenever I went after the monkeys along the dimly lit hippo tunnels, I was always expecting to see a sinister human shape lurking there.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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
The Pope will go to the region where St Augustine was a bishop - formerly known as Hippo, now called Annaba - where he will celebrate Mass.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 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
In every instance names and addresses are stated, and it will have been observed that all these miracles occurred in, or close to, Hippo, and in his own diocese.
From Supernatural Religion, Vol. I. (of III) An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine Revelation by Cassels, Walter Richard
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 Dickens, Charles
The prefix hippo- comes from the Greek word for "horse".
From The Faerie Queene — Volume 01 by Spenser, Edmund
Both are expected to be released when they grow up to join other hippos living in the wild.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
Past installments have seen the hippos found a power company, join the space race and tank the stock market.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026
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
Fossil evidence also revealed that these warm-adapted hippos lived alongside cold-climate animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses -- an unusual ecological mix that highlights the complexity of Ice Age environments.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2025
But the hippos didn’t care for the shallows.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
