Alce

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An elk. obsolete

    "Alces, brought for the nonce out of the great wooddes of Germany."

  2. 2
    A mythical beast resembling a griffin with no wings, often classified as a male griffin. rare

    "Ar. a fesse betw. three alces’ or griffins’ heads erased sa."

Synonyms

All synonyms
elkkeythong

Example

More examples

"Alces, brought for the nonce out of the great wooddes of Germany."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin alcē. Doublet of Alcis, Algiz, and elk.

Etymology 2

Possibly from Ancient Greek ἀλκή (alkḗ, “courage, prowess; guard, defense”).

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