adj, name, noun, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "animal" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "animal" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "animal" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Check whether "animal" is acting as adj, name, noun, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
Compare it with "creature" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Before publishing a sentence with "animal", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
"Humans, like other animals, need air to breathe and food to eat."
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:Animal."
"When he's hungry my toddler opens his mouth like an animal instead of asking us to feed him."
"Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal."
"I spent my summer studying the animals and birds of the two islands."
"My students are animals."
"He's a political animal."
"a whole different animal"
"animal instincts"
"animal passions"
"To explain what activated the flesh, ‘animal spirits’ were posited, superfine fluids which shuttled between the mind and the vitals, conveying messages and motion."
"Half an eye is very useful actually, because an animal can see half of another animal, which wants to eat it, and can get out of the way, and it will eat the animal, which has only one-half eye or only 49% of an eye, because this to it will not be enough, and the animal, which was eaten up, will have no children, because it is dead."
Any member of the kingdom Animalia of multicellular organisms that are usually mobile, whose cells are not encased in a rigid cell wall (distinguishing them from plants and fungi) and which derive energy solely from the consumption of other organisms (further distinguishing them from plants).
Common synonyms include: creature, beast, aardvark, aardwolf, adamic, alpaca.
Half an eye is very useful actually, because an animal can see half of another animal, which wants to eat it, and can get out of the way, and it will eat the animal, which has only one-half eye or only 49% of an eye, because this to it will not be enough, and the animal, which was eaten up, will have no children, because it is dead.
Pronounced /ˈæn.ᵻ.məl/.
From Middle English animal, from Old French animal, from Latin animal, a nominal use of the adjective form animāle, neuter of animālis, from anima (“breath, spirit”). Displaced native Middle English deor, der (“animal”) (whence modern English deer; from Old English dēor (“animal”)), Middle English reother (“animal, neat”) (whence modern English rother; from Old English hrīþer, hrȳþer (“neat, ox”)).
From Middle English animal, from Latin animālis, from either anima (“breath, spirit”) or animus. Originally distinct from the noun, it became associated with attributive use of the noun and is now indistinguishable from it.