vivarium
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of vivarium
1590–1600; < Latin vīvārium, equivalent to vīv ( us ) living ( see vital) + -ārium -ary
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How does vivarium compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The deluxe indoor enclosure you built for your pet rabbits — complete with a salad bar, fluffy beds, and a bunny-sized jacuzzi — can be called a vivarium, a type of structure that's specifically intended to house animals. The word vivarium sounds a lot like the more familiar terrarium, and the two have a lot in common. Both are animal enclosures, but a terrarium is a special type of vivarium that's adapted for animals that need access to both land and water (like reptiles). As its root vivus ("alive") implies, a vivarium is for any living animal. Originally, it meant "game park" but was gradually scaled down to mean "indoor enclosure."
Vocabulary lists containing vivarium
viv, vivi, vit
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The Marvellers
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-arium, -orium
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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:
Lamb had noted some of the mice in their vivarium that were missing Crkl and showed spina bifida.
From Science Daily ● May 8, 2024
Until the new vivarium at RML opens, Munster is using a colony of Jamaican fruit bats maintained at CSU to conduct his own studies of innate immune responses to SARS-CoV-2.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 4, 2023
Back in the small brick building in Medellín, Asprilla returns the snake to its home, a glass vivarium that stretches from floor to ceiling.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2023
An insectarium with a monumental resin model of a beehive also has a display of live leafcutter ants at work; inside a nearby butterfly vivarium, you can watch pupae in various stages of metamorphosis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2023
The base of the vivarium or breeding cage should never be made of tin, but always of zinc.
From Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects by Riley, C. V.
Receiving labs are risking the reliability of subsequent experiments — and perhaps even the health of their vivaria.
From Nature ● Jun. 9, 2015
An incredible number of animals of various kinds, were brought from all quarters, for the entertainment of the people, at an immense expense; and were kept in enclosures called vivaria, till the day of exhibition.
From Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology For Classical Schools (2nd ed) by Dillaway, Charles K.
This occupation had become for him so agreeable that later, when in Rome, and forced to live without hunting, he went to vivaria and amphitheatres just to look at beasts known and unknown to him.
From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Curtin, Jeremiah
Others swore by the gods that wild beasts had been let out of all the vivaria at Bronze-beard's command.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 by Horne, Charles F. (Charles Francis)
Others swore by the gods that wild beasts had been let out of all the vivaria at Bronzebeard's command.
From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Curtin, Jeremiah
Demand has doubled in recent years, with customers buying his moss for hanging baskets in spring and Christmas wreaths in winter, as well as vivariums to keep geckos and iguanas happy all year round.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026
Lab mice, such as those cared for at LJI, are housed in ultra-clean vivariums.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2023
Forget zebras and giraffes cavorting outdoors: Here, our heroes are smaller, grosser creatures confined in glass vivariums.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2021
At home I kept insects and amphibians in a growing collection of glass aquariums and vivariums arranged on bedroom shelves and windowsills.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2017
The ferns are arranged in glass cases, or vivariums.
From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 3 by Various
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.
