javelina
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of javelina
An Americanism dating back to 1815–25; from Latin American Spanish jabalina, from Spanish: feminine of jabalín “wild boar,” dialectal variant of jabalí, from Arabic (khinzīr) jabalī “mountain (boar)”
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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.
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Behrends, who lives nearby, said the desert hills are so quiet that some residents leave their homes unlocked, and the most excitement they see is wildlife, including rattlesnakes and wild javelina pigs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
She’s the internet’s most beloved trash-eating ungulate — the uncompromising, the indefatigable, the lovely javelina.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2023
The pangrams from yesterday’s Spelling Bee were javelin and javelina.
From New York Times ● Aug. 16, 2022
Authorities say the javelina ripped off a portion of the dashboard and the inside of a door in an attempt to escape.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
The only thing that showed up, however, was a little band of javelina hogs, and I knew better than to shoot them.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
The difference in the ways we kids talked about the javelinas and the way my parents and neighbors did was worlds away.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2024
On Dec. 11, video recorders captured a mountain lion sniffing around, followed on Dec. 14 by a foraging mama bear and cub, two javelinas on Dec. 18 and, the next day, a sad-eyed ringtail cat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
Now Bisbee says the club is working with its restaurant suppliers, trying to scorch the javelinas with a one-million Scoville-unit chili oil that the club can spray over the turf without killing it.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2023
In his interviews with investigators, Mark Sheppard said he and his brother had been out looking to shoot animals and thought they had spotted some javelinas, similar to wild hogs.
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2022
The javelinas moved away, and I saw some bobwhite quail feed into the opening around the Licks.
From "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson
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.
