wyvern

American

[wahy-vern] / ˈwaɪ vərn /

Or wivern

noun

a two-legged winged dragon having the back part of a serpent with a barbed tail.

wyvern British

/ ˈwaɪvən /

noun

a heraldic beast having a serpent's tail and a dragon's head and a body with wings and two legs

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of wyvern

1600–10; alteration (with unexplained -n ) of earlier wyver, Middle English < Anglo-French wivre ( Old French guivre ) < Latin vīpera viper

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:

wyvern

A wyvern is a long-ago made-up creature with wings that is like a two-legged dragon.

From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads

As his cloak shifted, she spied the gold wyvern embroidered on his tunic.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Atop its hilt perched a wyvern, open-mouthed and screaming.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Maybe at McDonald’s I could order a wyvern with special sauce on a sesame-seed bun.

From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads

When Werfel arrived, the Foreign Secretary was just giving the order for the three-headed wyvern to collect the capsule out of the sky and bring it gently, softly, safely down to the ground.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023