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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

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Etymology

Origin of hunter

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

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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

Although tiny by today's standards, this aquatic hunter was a heavyweight among the early mammal relatives that shared the planet with dinosaurs.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

As McCarthy tells it, the hunter said he didn’t know, but that he would think about it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 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

A pioneering fossil hunter who was one of the first women to be employed by the National History Museum has been recognised with a national blue plaque.

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

He did not have the skills he would need to survive in the coming days, those of outdoorsman, hunter, or river boatman.

From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson

Dr Fiona Hunter, vice-chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in Scotland, told BBC Scotland News that she was "completely terrified" of the situation.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

More problematic: “Steam catapults have been out of production for decades—no one makes them anymore,” said Hunter Stires, the maritime strategist to former Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Dr Fiona Hunter, vice chair of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said A&E departments were providing "unsafe" levels of care, with some patients spending 72 hours on trolleys in hospital corridors.

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

This friend, Jim Hunter, was an English professor in a small university about two hundred and fifty miles away.

From "The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford

However, a band of devoted fossil hunters kept searching.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

Mackenzie Crook, who wrote and directed “Detectorists,” a gorgeous pastoral comedy about hobbyist hunters seeking Saxon gold in southwest England, has a new series, “Small Prophets,” premiering Wednesday on Apple TV.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

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

“Phil Resch, Rick Deckard. You’re both bounty hunters and it’s probably time you met.”

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

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