colt
noun
a young male animal of the horse family.
colt
1 American
[kohlt]
/ koʊlt /
noun
-
a young male animal of the horse family.
-
a male horse of not more than four years of age.
-
a young or inexperienced person.
Colt
2
American
[kohlt]
/ koʊlt /
Trademark.
Colt
3
American
[kohlt]
/ koʊlt /
noun
colt
1
British
/ kəʊlt /
noun
-
a male horse or pony under the age of four
-
an awkward or inexperienced young person
-
sport
-
a young and inexperienced player
-
a member of a junior team
-
Colt
2
British
/ kəʊlt /
noun
Etymology
Origin of colt
before 1000; Middle English, Old English; compare dialectal Swedish kult little pig
Explanation
A colt is a male horse that's younger than four years old. When your colt is older than four, you can call him a stallion, gelding, or simply a horse. There are many terms for horses, depending what age they are and whether they're male or female. While colt can only refer to a young male, and a female of a similar age would be called a filly, you can talk about a horse of either sex that's between one and two years old as a yearling. The word colt comes directly from Old English, and it originally meant "young ass," or "young camel."
Vocabulary lists containing colt
Name On: Pro Sports Team Names, Part 1
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Black Beauty
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In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
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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.
As a yearling, the colt didn’t meet his reserve price of $95,000, so Kahn and Hidden Brook pointed him to a 2-year-old in training sale last year at Ocala.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 30, 2026
Baffert has another San Felipe starter in Potente, an Into Mischief colt who cost $2.4 million as a yearling.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2026
That race and two others were on grass; Baffert said he did that because he wanted to get the colt in some races.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 7, 2026
The Ryan consortium also has a colt in the eight-horse field, Litmus Test, a son of Nyquist who was an $875,000 purchase.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 30, 2025
“You understand now why I want your colt so badly?”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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.
