adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A digitigrade animal; an animal that walks on its toes, such as a cat or a dog. in-plural
2. 2
   an animal that walks so that only the toes touch the ground as e.g. dogs and cats and horses wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Of an animal: walking on the toes, putting the weight of the body mainly on the ball of the foot, with the back of the foot, or heel, raised. not-comparable
2. 2
   Of feet or a manner of walking: of, resembling, or pertaining to that of a digitigrade animal. not-comparable
3. 3
   Belonging to the Digitigrada of the taxonomic order Carnivora. not-comparable, specifically

Adjective

1. 1
   (of mammals) walking on the toes with the posterior part of the foot raised (as cats, dogs, and horses do) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

digitigrade mammaldigitigrade mammalplantigradeunguligrade

Antonyms

All antonyms

plantigrade

Etymology

From French digitigrade, from Latin digitus (“finger, toe, digit”) + -grade (“gait”); compare New Latin digitigradus.

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