herbivorous
Americanadjective
adjective
-
(of animals) feeding on grass and other plants
-
informal liberal, idealistic, or nonmaterialistic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of herbivorous
Explanation
A buffalo, a goose, a grasshopper, and a stegosaurus sit down to eat dinner. This isn’t a joke, it’s an example of herbivorous creatures who exist on a diet of plant life only. Herbivorous comes from the Latin word herba, which means “green plants,” and that’s what herbivorous animals eat all the time: grass, leaves, and other plants. Some massive and strong animals actually have peaceful herbivorous eating habits, like gorillas and hippopotamuses. The opposite of herbivorous is carnivorous, which describes meat-eating beasts like lions, sharks, crocodiles, and your uncle Marvin who eats nothing but steak all day long.
Vocabulary lists containing herbivorous
100 SAT Words Beginning with "H"
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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2014 Vocabulary Video Contest (A-L)
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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.
The herbivorous marsupial can also reabsorb water from the colon and produce more concentrated urine to preserve hydration, or allow its body temperature to fluctuate with the environment in a process known as heterothermy.
From Barron's • May 26, 2026
Therizinosaurs were a group of either herbivorous or omnivorous theropod dinosaurs that lived in Asia and North America during the Cretaceous Period, which began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago.
From BBC • Mar. 25, 2025
Known in Argentina as carpinchos, capybaras are gentle and herbivorous, but they are hard to miss.
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2024
However, the island is also home to an abundance of mostly herbivorous mammals big enough to crush a snake, including deer, pigs, sheep, cows, goats, and humans.
From Science Magazine • Apr. 3, 2024
In all, of the world’s 148 big wild terrestrial herbivorous mammals—the candidates for domestication—only 14 passed the test.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
