vivarium

American  

[vahy-vair-ee-uhm, vi-] / vaɪˈvɛər i əm, vɪ- /

noun

• vivariums,
  plural
• vivaria
  plural

1. a place, such as a laboratory, where live animals or plants are kept under conditions simulating their natural environment, as for research.

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vivarium British  

/ vaɪˈvɛərɪəm /

noun

1. a place where live animals are kept under natural conditions for study, research, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• vivaria
  plural
• vivariums
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vivarium

1590–1600; < Latin vīvārium, equivalent to vīv ( us ) living ( see vital) + -ārium -ary

Compare meaning

How does vivarium compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• vivarium vs. terrarium

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vivarium vivaria vivariums

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

Mr Newman urged snake owners to also make sure their pet's vivarium is secure, as they've found many with the vents attached the wrong way round.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2023

Reader, have you in your house a vivarium or aquarium, or any other variety of animal curiosity-shop, under care of the younger members?

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

Receiving labs are risking the reliability of subsequent experiments — and perhaps even the health of their vivaria.

From Nature ● Jun. 9, 2015

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 Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne

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 Jeremiah Curtin

Hundreds of jars and vials, vivaria and insectaries, microscopes, guns, and cameras, with all their details and mysterious inner workings, left no table vacant.

From Jungle Peace by William Beebe

Tigellinus emptied the vivaria of all Italian cities, not excepting the smaller ones.

From Quo Vadis: a narrative of the time of Nero by Jeremiah Curtin

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