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

Florsheim has two dogs: Leo, a two-year-old German shepherd he calls “a bit of a handful,” and Rosie, a six-year-old border collie mix.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

A Claude-based agent books her airline tickets and hotels, and she recently built another to help with her new German shepherd puppy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

"Finn's law" was named after German shepherd Finn, who suffered near-fatal injuries as he protected PC Dave Wardell from an attacker in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in 2016.

From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026

Later, Onofre Martinez’s powerful three-legged German shepherd charged off its porch like an enraged water buffalo, jumped over the picket fence, and hung on the volunteer’s heels.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

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