ruminant
Americannoun
adjective
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being or relating to animals that ruminate or chew the cud, typically those of the suborder Ruminantia.
Methane emissions from ruminant animals represent a quarter of all methane emissions in the region.
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contemplative; meditative.
In a corner of the library, a ruminant scholar sat poring over a thick book.
noun
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any artiodactyl mammal of the suborder Ruminantia , the members of which chew the cud and have a stomach of four compartments, one of which is the rumen. The group includes deer, antelopes, cattle, sheep, and goats
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any other animal that chews the cud, such as a camel
adjective
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of, relating to, or belonging to the suborder Ruminantia
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(of members of this suborder and related animals, such as camels) chewing the cud; ruminating
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meditating or contemplating in a slow quiet way
Usage
What does ruminant mean? A ruminant is an even-toed, hoofed, four-legged mammal that eats grass and other plants. Ruminants include domestic cattle (cows), sheep, goats, bison, buffalo, deer, antelopes, giraffes, and camels. Ruminants typically have a stomach with four compartments. They are known for chewing cud, which is food that has been regurgitated from the first compartment to be chewed again. To chew and rechew in this way is to ruminate, and this process called rumination. Ruminant can also be used as an adjective to describe such animals. It can also be used in a figurative way to describe someone who ruminates on things—extensively thinks them over or ponders them. (When used in a figurative way, the verb ruminate and the noun rumination are more commonly used than the adjective ruminant.)Example: Ruminants typically thrive in grasslands where there is ample space for them to graze.
Other Word Forms
- nonruminant noun
- ruminantly adverb
- unruminant adjective
Etymology
Origin of ruminant
First recorded in 1655–65; from Latin rūminant-, stem of rūmināns “chewing cud,” present participle of rūmināre, rūminārī “to chew cud, meditate,” verb derivative of rūmin-, stem of rūmen rumen
Explanation
A ruminant is a cud-chewing, four-legged, hoofed animal, like a cow, goat, sheep, or giraffe. Ruminants are herbivores with multi-chambered stomachs. Most ruminants have four stomach chambers, which digest the animals' tough, fibrous food in multiple steps. First, plant matter is broken down and softened by microbes in the rumen, the largest chamber. Then, it is formed into the cud — partially digested food — in the next chamber and regurgitated into the mouth. The animal chews the cud to break it down into finer particles — a process called rumination — and swallows it again. The food enters a third chamber, where its ground even further, and then on into the "true stomach."
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.
We hear “the strangled ungulate blurt” of a distressed elk, “the ruminant crunch” of a grazing sheep.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
The analyses allowed researchers to distinguish residual fats derived from milk, ruminant and non-ruminant animals, as well as of marine or plant origin.
From Science Daily • May 21, 2024
This indicates that they not only farmed, but raised ruminant animals.
From National Geographic • Sep. 15, 2023
The plant material undergoing digestion in the stomachs and intestines of large ruminant herbivores is a not-so-appetizing substance called digesta.
From Salon • Jun. 1, 2023
The danger lies in the increase in nitrates, for the peculiar physiology of the ruminant at once poses a critical problem.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
