menagerie
Americannoun
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a collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.
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a place where they are kept or exhibited.
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an unusual and varied group of people.
noun
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a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition
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the place where such animals are housed
Etymology
Origin of menagerie
1705–15; < French: literally, housekeeping. See ménage, -ery
Explanation
A menagerie (pronounced muh-NA-juh-ree, with NA as in "national") is a collection of live animals that people visit, study, or keep as pets. If you really want a backyard menagerie of farm animals after visiting the petting zoo, take a long sniff and remember what comes with them. Pet lovers can have a menagerie of cats, dogs, and birds or exotic animals such as snakes, ferrets, and piranhas. Zoos have animal collections like the menagerie of sea creatures in the aquarium and the swinging apes in the jungle menagerie. And a science or medical center may have a menagerie of rats for studying behavior. If you want a menagerie, an ant farm is a good one: lots of animals in a container, always working, and never stinking up the place.
Vocabulary lists containing menagerie
Life of Pi
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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"Wild Animals Aren't Pets" and "Let People Own Exotic Animals"
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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.
For example, “Guilty Creatures: A Menagerie of Mysteries,” edited by the redoubtable Martin Edwards, assembles stories in which the crime involves some kind of animal.
From Washington Post • Dec. 8, 2022
Eddie, who is about six months old, only arrived at Waulkmill Menagerie, New Deer, on Sunday.
From BBC • Sep. 23, 2021
In 2017, theater director Sam Gold cast actress Madison Ferris — who uses a wheelchair in real life — as Laura in his Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."
From Salon • Dec. 28, 2020
Sedgwick combined the quirky, upper-crust verve of Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby with the wounded-bird appeal of the Laura character in The Glass Menagerie.
From The Guardian • Feb. 16, 2020
So the Suli girl—and the Menagerie always stocked a Suli girl—was known as the lynx.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
