fossorial
Americanadjective
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digging or burrowing.
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adapted for digging, as the hands, feet, and bone structure of moles, armadillos, and aardvarks.
adjective
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(of the forelimbs and skeleton of burrowing animals) adapted for digging
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(of burrowing animals, such as the mole and armadillo) having limbs of this type
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fossorial
1830–40; < Late Latin fossōri ( us ) adapted to digging (equivalent to Latin fod ( ere ) to dig + tōrius -tory 1, with dt > ss ) + -al 1
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.
All members of the Satyrex genus are fossorial, meaning they spend their lives underground.
From Science Daily • Apr. 6, 2026
Here in the Pacific Northwest spring, tiger salamanders emerge from their fossorial homes to breed, and the poisonous rough-skinned newt accelerates its activities with the warming sun.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 28, 2023
We even come to identify with the elusive, fossorial animal, its plight not so different from our own.
From Seattle Times • May 10, 2022
By the standards of fossorial animals—those that burrow or live underground—rabbit holes are not particularly impressive.
From The New Yorker • Jun. 4, 2015
Ecologically the fauna is divided into five major habitats—aquatic, aquatic margin, fossorial, terrestrial, and arboreal.
From Amphibians and Reptiles of the Rainforests of Southern El Peten, Guatemala by Duellman, William E.
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.
