vivarium
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vivarium
1590–1600; < Latin vīvārium, equivalent to vīv ( us ) living ( see vital) + -ārium -ary
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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.
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
No less than 130,000 visiters have been admitted to view the gardens and the vivarium within the year 1828.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 361, Supplementary Issue (1829) 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.
