menagerie

American  

[muh-naj-uh-ree, -nazh-] / məˈnædʒ ə ri, -ˈnæʒ- /

noun

• menageries
  plural

1. a collection of wild or unusual animals, especially for exhibition.

2. a place where they are kept or exhibited.

3. an unusual and varied group of people.

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menagerie British  

/ mɪˈnædʒərɪ /

noun

1. a collection of wild animals kept for exhibition

2. the place where such animals are housed

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• menageries
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of menagerie

1705–15; < French: literally, housekeeping. See ménage, -ery

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

menagerie menageries

For its technical team, "Wildwood" marks a milestone in terms of the expressions created, and the menagerie of animals featured.

From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026

The author said he moved to his new home in West Sussex because it had land for his "huge and expanding menagerie", and was quiet.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

They include a selection of more than 90 lots from a "cement menagerie" - painted sculptures of animals, historical figures and rural scenes.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

By the time she was 8, the menagerie had become so huge that we needed to string up a net over her bed to free up some floor space.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

South America hosted an even more exotic menagerie of large mammals, reptiles and birds.

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

Wealthy rulers throughout history, from Carlos III of Spain to Moctezuma, the ruler of the Aztec Empire, have kept menageries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2024

It is these boastful collections of animals, these autocratic menageries, from which the modern zoo, with its didactic plaques and $15 hot dogs, springs.

From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2021

In the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, both countries launched veritable menageries aboard rockets, although none both reached orbit and survived the journey before 1960’s Soviet dogs Belka and Strelka.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 12, 2021

From his collection he supplies museums and menageries with beasts, wild and domestic, and schools and lyceums with animal skeletons, skins, and other objects for the study of natural history.

From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2020

His main occupation in our country is that of eating peanuts, candies, and fruit doled out to him by visitors to the menageries, and the performance of a few highly sagacious tricks.

From The Pearl of India by Maturin Murray Ballou

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