entrails

[ en-treylz, -truhlz ]

plural noun

1. the internal parts of the trunk of an animal body.
2. the intestines.
3. the internal parts of anything:

   the entrails of a machine.

entrails

/ ˈɛntreɪlz /

plural noun

1. the internal organs of a person or animal; intestines; guts
2. the innermost parts of anything

Word History and Origins

Origin of entrails¹

1250–1300; Middle English entrailles < Anglo-French, Middle French < Vulgar Latin *interālia (compare early Medieval Latin intrālia ), alteration, by suffix change ( -al ¹ ), of Latin interānea guts, neuter plural of interāneus; see inter-, -an, -eous

Word History and Origins

Origin of entrails¹

C13: from Old French entrailles, from Medieval Latin intrālia, changed from Latin interānea intestines, ultimately from inter between

Example Sentences

Legal minds look to the text to read the thoughts of the Framers as a high priest would study entrails at the Forum.

From The Daily Beast

It launches with a family hacked to death by one of its members, the mother's abdomen reduced to “a bloody bowl of entrails.”

From The Daily Beast

By fleeing his palace, Mubarak responded to the instinct not to have his entrails on display in the public square.

From The Daily Beast

They gleefully bathe in fresh entrails; they rip the limbs off human bodies like a gourmand digging into a fresh lobster.

From The Daily Beast

I dig out strings of beads so impertinently large that they could never have been spat from the mere entrails of an oyster.

From The Daily Beast

My entrails were troubled in seeking her: therefore shall I possess a good possession.

From Project Gutenberg

There were augurs and haruspices to discover the will of the gods, according to entrails and the flight of birds.

From Project Gutenberg

It consists of the fattest parts of the entrails of the pig, broiled in an oven.

From Project Gutenberg

He instructs the Mother Serpent to slay a wild ox and conceal herself in its entrails.

From Project Gutenberg

The water-line is strewn with cast-off salmon heads and entrails.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• insides