aurochs

American  

[awr-oks] / ˈɔr ɒks /

noun

1. a large, black European wild ox, Bos primigenius: extinct since 1627.

2. (not used scientifically) the European bison.

---

aurochs British  

/ ˈɔːrɒks /

noun

1. Also called: urus.  a recently extinct member of the cattle tribe, Bos primigenius, that inhabited forests in N Africa, Europe, and SW Asia. It had long horns and is thought to be one of the ancestors of modern cattle

---

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• aurochs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of aurochs

1760–70; < German, variant (now obsolete) of Auerochs, Middle High German ūrochse, Old High German ūrohso, equivalent to ūr (cognate with Old English ūr bison) + ohso ox

Example Sentences

Aurochs were once found across Europe before habitat loss and hunting wiped them out in the 17th Century.

From BBC • Aug. 4, 2025

Aurochs roamed most of the European continent as well in Northern Africa and Asia for several hundred thousand years.

From US News • Oct. 13, 2015

Forrest Wickman: Laura, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, we will spend 24 hours trapped in a small Times Square theater with ferocious Aurochs, a tiger named Richard Parker, and Anne Hathaway.

From Slate • Feb. 22, 2013

Ung — hath he slept with the Aurochs — watched where the Mastodon roam?

From Verses 1889-1896 by Kipling, Rudyard

Urus, ū′rus, n. the Latin name of the wild ox, which in the time of Julius C�sar was abundant in European forests—the Aurochs of the Germans, and the ancestor of the European domesticated cattle.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various