Bestiary

//ˈbiːstiˌɛɹi// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A medieval treatise of various real or imaginary animals.

    "Back in the 60s, Robin Boyd told us how ugly Australian architecture was. As his valediction, he has left us a bestiary of ugly Australians."

  2. 2
    a medieval book (usually illustrated) with allegorical and amusing descriptions of real and fabled animals wordnet
  3. 3
    A collection of various beasts, depicted in art, literature, or the like.

    "More commonly known to the English speaker as “Genie”; the “dijn” is a powerful demon in the bestiary of the Middle East, mistaken in this instance for the Buddha."

  4. 4
    A list or guidebook of the monsters to be found in a roleplaying game.

Example

More examples

"To find out the werewolf's weakness, look up his entry in the Bestiary."

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin bēstiārium, from Latin bēstia (“beast, animal”). By surface analysis, beast + -ary.

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