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bestiary

American  
[bes-chee-er-ee, bees-] / ˈbɛs tʃiˌɛr i, ˈbis- /

noun

plural

bestiaries

  1. a collection of moralized fables, especially as written in the Middle Ages, about actual or mythical animals.

bestiary British  
/ ˈbɛstɪərɪ /

noun

  1. a moralizing medieval collection of descriptions (and often illustrations) of real and mythical animals

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • bestiarist noun

Etymology

Origin of bestiary

1615–25; < Medieval Latin bēstiārium, neuter of Latin bēstiārius. See beast, -ary

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.

The crew, who are near the end of a 65-year mission — suspended animation keeps them young and pretty — are transporting an extraterrestrial bestiary back to Earth.

From Los Angeles Times

Her bestiary, inevitably, is also a catalog of human greed, ego, and neglect.

From Salon

Such animals were found in bestiaries, which were illustrated books offering the most popular sources of information about animals, real or imaginary, during the Middle Ages.

From BBC

The bestiary of acceptable species on which respectable researchers can experiment is expanding.

From Salon

With terrifying beasts like the Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer, Stranger Things has slowly been building up an impressive bestiary of monsters.

From The Verge

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.