omnivore
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of omnivore
First recorded in 1885–90; from French, from Latin omnivorus “all-devouring”; see omnivorous ( def. ); noun use modeled on carnivore, herbivore, etc.
Explanation
An omnivore is an animal that eats both plants and animals for their main food. Pigs are omnivores, so they would be just as happy eating an apple, or the worm inside the apple. Omnivore comes from the Latin words omni, meaning "all, everything," and vorare, meaning "to devour." So an omnivore will eat pretty much eat anything in sight. Humans are genetically designed to be omnivores, but some people choose to limit their diets. When a person is described as an omnivore, it usually means he's willing to eat all kinds of foods and is not a vegetarian or a vegan or on some other kind of special diet.
Vocabulary lists containing omnivore
The Omnivore's Dilemma
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Life Science: Ecosystems
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Ecology - Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
Mylodon, which lived between 1.8 million and 12,000 years ago, was mainly vegetarian but was also an opportunistic omnivore.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2024
Acocella was a cultural omnivore, and the menu here is correspondingly eclectic: Dracula, dictionaries, dirty words; Marilynne Robinson, Richard Pryor, Elena Ferrante; Gilgamesh, Beowulf, “Little Women.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
The omnivore diet included chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy and other animal-sourced foods.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023
The aequorea victoria are classed as omnivore, and feed on plankton.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2023
It’s certainly an advantage we have over the omnivore rat, which cannot share its hard-won knowledge of food with other rats.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
Vegan children also had shorter stature and lower BMI scores compared with omnivores.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 21, 2025
The ancestors of dinosaurs were small omnivores, minor players in the Triassic ecosystem.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 27, 2024
They're generalists, they're omnivores, and so you can put a gull pretty much anywhere.
From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2024
The omnivores, who are skilled scavengers, are known to head to residential communities in search of food, particularly during the spring and summer months.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024
But, unlike koalas and monarch butterflies, omnivores not only can eat different foods, we need to eat a variety of foods to stay healthy.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
