Oliphant

name, noun

name, noun ·3 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An elephant. archaic, historical

    "She [Diana] hath ſent (to plague vs) a huge ſauadge Boare, Of an vn-meaſured height and magnitude. […] His briſtles poynted like a range of pikes Ranck't on his backe: his foame ſnowes where he feeds His tuskes are like the Indian Oliphants."

  2. 2
    An ancient ivory hunting-horn.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
elephant

Example

More examples

"She [Diana] hath ſent (to plague vs) a huge ſauadge Boare, Of an vn-meaſured height and magnitude. […] His briſtles poynted like a range of pikes Ranck't on his backe: his foame ſnowes where he feeds His tuskes are like the Indian Oliphants."

Etymology

From Middle English olifaunt, from Anglo-Norman oliphant (“ivory, elephant”) and Old French oliphant (“ivory, elephant, musical horn of ivory”), from Latin elephantus (“elephant”), from Ancient Greek ἐλέφας (eléphas, “ivory, elephant”).

Related phrases

hunting horn

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.