mane
Americannoun
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the long hair growing on the back of or around the neck and neighboring parts of some animals, as the horse or lion.
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Informal. (on a human being) a head of distinctively long and thick or rough hair.
noun
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the long coarse hair that grows from the crest of the neck in such mammals as the lion and horse
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long thick human hair
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mane
before 900; Middle English; Old English manu; cognate with German Mähne, Dutch manen, Old Norse mǫn
Explanation
Use the noun mane when you talk about an animal's ruff of neck hair. A male lion's mane can be very fluffy and dramatic. A mane is a patch or growth of long hair, whether it's found on a lion or down the neck of a pony, or even on a human's head. You might stroke a horse's mane while sitting on its back, or you could compliment your friend on her beautiful mane of long blonde hair. The Old English root is manu, which comes from a Proto-Indo-European root, mon, which means "neck" or "nape of the neck."
Vocabulary lists containing mane
Horsin' Around
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"A Contest of Riddles"
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When I Was the Greatest
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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.
See Examples For:
His balding head’s scraggly hair—in contrast to the wigs worn by just about every Frenchman at the time, no matter the social class—is both ennobling and a bit enfeebling, like an aging but distinguished mane.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
The bout was hair vs. hair; whichever billionaire lost would be stripped of their mane in the ring.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
With his gray-and-white mane sleekly accentuating his black and lavender ensemble, he struts with an eminence that had me picturing Eartha Kitt in a Bob Fosse spectacular.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
On Fox News, Essayli, sporting a blue FBI windbreaker, hyped the arrest of Orellana, a quiet, wiry man with a long mane of coal-black hair.
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2026
I turn around to see Emma running across the yard, her bare feet kicking up grass clippings and her disheveled hair flying in the breeze like a lion’s mane.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
In the forested areas between Mount Rainier, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens, foragers can look for chanterelles, shaggy manes and the rare Pacific Northwest matsutake.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 16, 2022
The screens hang above the row of committee members who all look crisper and a bit more self-consciously groomed than usual with their blowouts and trimmed beards and clipped manes.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 14, 2022
In the last few months, Hailey Bieber, Billie Eilish, Florence Pugh, Dove Cameron and Gigi Hadid, among other celebs, have taken their manes deeper and darker.
From New York Times ● Dec. 28, 2021
Horse’s manes and reptilian scales are among other details that helped inform her overall design.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2021
The sun was bright that day with only breeze enough to ruffle the horses’ manes, flaunt scarlet riding capes, float the flag of England.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
