camel

American  

[kam-uhl] / ˈkæm əl /

noun

camels plural

1. either of two large, humped, ruminant quadrupeds of the genus Camelus, of the Old World.

2. a color ranging from yellowish tan to yellowish brown.

3. Also called camel spin.  Skating. a spin done in an arabesque position.

4. Nautical.

   1. Also called pontoon.  a float for lifting a deeply laden vessel sufficiently to allow it to cross an area of shallow water.

   2. a float serving as a fender between a vessel and a pier or the like.

   3. caisson.

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camel British  

/ ˈkæməl /

noun

1. either of two cud-chewing artiodactyl mammals of the genus Camelus : family Camelidae. They are adapted for surviving long periods without food or water in desert regions, esp by using humps on the back for storing fat See Arabian camel Bactrian camel

2. a float attached to a vessel to increase its buoyancy See also caisson

3. a raft or float used as a fender between a vessel and a wharf

4. 1. a fawn colour

   2. ( as adjective )

      a camel dress

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camel Idioms  

1. see under last straw.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• camellike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• camels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of camel

before 950; Middle English, Old English < Latin camēlus < Greek kámēlos < Semitic; compare Hebrew gāmāl

Explanation

A camel is a four-legged desert animal that's slightly larger than a horse. Camels are distinctive for the humps on their backs. There are two types of camels: the single-humped or dromedary and the two-humped camel. The first kind lives in the Middle East and parts of Africa, while the second is found in Central Asia. All camels are well-suited to life in the desert, going long periods without water and able to withstand high heat. The word camel comes from the Greek kamelos, and may be related to the Arabic jamala, "to bear."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

camel camels

"They are leaving the northern region for good because they can no longer sustain camel herding there because of extreme heat and drought," he told the BBC.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Mine is a shade of camel that my haberdasher insists on calling “whiskey.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Now, estimates of the wild camel population range from 300,000 to a million animals.

From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026

Among the video’s more surreal moments are depictions of Trump riding a camel through the desert, traveling through India on a motorcycle, appearing as an anime-style warrior and sharing tacos with world leaders.

From Salon ● Jun. 6, 2026

The camel shifted its feet as they approached.

From "Habibi" by Naomi Shihab Nye

Umer, the cattle herder in Afar, said he was worried that an outbreak of disease could start killing his adult camels anytime now.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

Experts say camels comfortably beat the heat up to around 40C by mainly allowing their body temperature to fluctuate by several degrees throughout the day to deal with outside temperature.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026

More than 10,000 camels were imported into Australia from 1840, many of them released into the wild with the development of railways and then the arrival of motor vehicles in the 1920s.

From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026

For the next 49,000 years, the sticky pits captured virtually everything that fell or walked onto them, from grains of pollen borne by the wind to hapless ancient camels and Columbian mammoths.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026

The sabre-tooth cats, after flourishing for more than 30 million years, disappeared, and so did the giant ground sloths, the oversized lions, native American horses, native American camels, the giant rodents and the mammoths.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

Related Words

• cream
• khaki
• off-white
• tan
• taupe