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• hunter
  hunter

  noun

  a person who hunts game or other wild animals for food or in sport.
• Hunter
  Hunter

  noun

  John, 1728–93, Scottish surgeon, physiologist, and biologist.

hunter

¹ American  

[huhn-ter] / ˈhʌn tər /

noun

• hunters
  plural

1. a person who hunts game or other wild animals for food or in sport.

2. a person who searches for or seeks something.

   a fortune hunter.

3. a horse specially trained for quietness, stamina, and jumping ability in hunting.

4. an animal, as a dog, trained to hunt game.

5. Astronomy. Hunter, the constellation Orion.

6. Also called hunting watch. a watch with a hunting case.

7. hunter green.

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Hunter ² American  

[huhn-ter] / ˈhʌn tər /

noun

1. John, 1728–93, Scottish surgeon, physiologist, and biologist.

2. Robert Mercer Taliaferro 1809–87, U.S. political leader: Speaker of the House 1839–41.

3. a male given name.

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hunter ¹ British  

/ ˈhʌntə /

noun

1. Female equivalent: huntress. a person or animal that seeks out and kills or captures game

2. 1. a person who looks diligently for something

   2. ( in combination )

      a fortune-hunter

3. a specially bred horse used in hunting, usually characterized by strength and stamina

4. a specially bred dog used to hunt game

5. Also called: hunting watch. a watch with a hinged metal lid or case ( hunting case ) to protect the crystal See also half-hunter

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Hunter ² British  

/ ˈhʌntə /

noun

1. John. 1728–93, British physician, noted for his investigation of venereal and other diseases

2. his brother, William. 1718–83, British anatomist and obstetrician

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hunterlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hunters
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hunter

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English huntere; see hunt, -er ¹

Explanation

A hunter is someone who seeks, pursues, or looks for something. Some hunters hunt deer but if you're a bargain hunter, you love to search department stores and yard sales for really good deals. Besides hunting for bargains, or for ghosts in her grandparents' attic, a hunter is also a person who enjoys the sport of pursuing and killing game animals and birds. Some hunters hunt for food, while others do it for fun. In Old English, the word was hunta, from huntian, "chase game," which is related to hentan, "to seize."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hunter Hunter hunters

The 1975 film “Jaws,” in which a local government hires a shark hunter to protect the town’s tourism industry, delighted me as a 10-year-old.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

Instead, he liked to tell the story of an expert dove hunter who was asked one day if he shot with one or both eyes open.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

"Saurichthys was probably a fast and agile hunter, while Birgeria was larger and more powerful, likely feeding on a wider variety of prey."

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026

Her husband Antoine, a head hunter who turns 35 on Sunday, said it was his first time seeing the pope as an adult.

From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026

That was his way of telling every living thing in those Cherokee bottoms to look out, for a mighty hunter and a bluetick hound were on the prowl.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls

Hunter said: "We know that excess mortality happens when you languish on a hospital trolley."

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

Hunter Hunt, CEO of Hunt Energy Holdings, said he was confident that such "infrastructural weaknesses" could be solved "quite quickly."

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

Liz Hunter, a tech founder and parent who has set up a petition calling for urgent new regulation of smart glasses, is furious.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Last October, another Hawker Hunter went down in the Big Sur area, prompting a rescue of the pilot.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026

“I’m Dr. Hunter Achebe, the founder and CEO of Mirror Tech,” he said, in a deep Nigerian accent.

From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste

Commercial hide hunters shot their way across the Plains until the species was reduced to perhaps 1,000 animals by the late 1880s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

"I think it's James," declared Jerry Hall, suddenly giving viewers hope that the new cast will be better traitor hunters than last year's.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Today’s house hunters are making calculations similar to the ones Burke and Stanley made in 2023.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

For the hunters, a massive grey orb with a ramp protruding from it is one clue.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026

Mom had said her uncles and grandpa were great hunters, that it was a family trait.

From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline