hyrax
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hyrax
1825–35; < New Latin < Greek hýrax (genitive hýrakos ) shrewmouse
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.
See Examples For:
Living in nomadic groups, the men use handmade bows and arrows to hunt Cape buffalo, baboons and the rodent-like hyrax.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
The rock hyrax resembles a large guinea pig and is found throughout Africa and in parts of Asia.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2021
I was in South Africa recently, and I visited Table Mountain, home to the rock hyrax, a small thing that looks like a rodent.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2018
Numerous varieties of bugs and invertebrates have adapted to life here, and ibex, hyrax, wild boars, desert cats, hyenas, jackals, and wolves come to drink from the pools.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2013
The hyrax has four toes on the front foot and three on the hind foot, and the feet are flat.
From The Story of Evolution by McCabe, Joseph
Similarly, animals closely related to elephants, such as hyraxes, also have internal testicles.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 5, 2023
For a half an hour the Brebners and I followed the eagles on their hunt for hyraxes.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2018
At Mutinda Camp, on day two, I showered under a glacier-fed waterfall, my yelps possibly outdoing the nocturnal rock hyraxes, whose default call sounds like they’re being brutally murdered.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 8, 2018
Anteaters, hedgehoglike animals called tenrecs, and rabbitlike hyraxes are doing fine, but gaurs, sloth bears, Bactrian camels, and bearded pigs are not.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 18, 2016
The Kenyan naturalists trapped and netted hundreds of birds, rodents, hyraxes, and bats.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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.
