German shepherd

American  

[jur-muhn shep-erd] / ˈdʒɜr mən ˈʃɛp ərd /

noun

• German shepherds
  plural

1. one of a breed of large shepherd dogs having a coat ranging in color from gray to brindled, black-and-tan, or black, used especially in police work and as a guide for the blind.

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German shepherd British  

noun

1. another name for Alsatian

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• German shepherds
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of German shepherd

1930–35; shepherd probably as translation of German Schäferhund

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

German shepherd

District Court judge denied an emergency application seeking to prevent the county from euthanizing Bruce, a 100-pound black and tan German shepherd mix.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

Elliot: I've got two dogs - a sausage dog and a German shepherd.

From BBC ● May 2, 2026

The mayor had a German shepherd named Fly when he was a child in Uganda.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

“All the people across the nation of Malawi are talking about these four German shepherd dogs,” Sekeya said in one post as generic images of the dogs scrolled behind him.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026

Dad and Mom kept shouting my sister’s name, but the only response was some crazed dog barking its head off—a big old German shepherd that one of the captains kept chained on his boat.

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen

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