Elephant
name, noun ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia. countable, uncountable
- 2 five-toed pachyderm wordnet
- 3 Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae not also of the genera Mammuthus and Primelephas. countable, uncountable
- 4 the symbol of the Republican Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874 wordnet
- 5 Anything huge and ponderous. countable, figuratively, uncountable
Show 4 more definitions
- 6 Synonym of elephant paper. countable, uncountable
- 7 used when counting to add length, so that each count takes about one second British, childish, countable, uncountable
"Let's play hide and seek. I'll count. One elephant, two elephant, three elephant..."
- 8 Ivory. obsolete, uncountable
"He sent rich gifts of elephant and gold."
- 9 A xiangqi piece that is moved two points diagonally, may not jump over intervening pieces and may not cross the river. countable, uncountable
- 1 The 105th sura (chapter) of the Quran.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Seen from a distance, the hill looks like an elephant."
Etymology
From Middle English elefant, elefaunt, from Old French elefant, elefan, olifant, re-latinized in Middle French as elephant, from Latin elephantus, from Ancient Greek ἐλέφᾱς (eléphās) (gen. ἐλέφαντος (eléphantos)). Believed to be derived from an Afroasiatic form such as Proto-Berber *eḷu (“elephant”) (compare Tamahaq êlu, Tamasheq alu) or Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant; ivory”). More at ivory. Replaced Middle English olifant (from the aforementioned Old French form, from Vulgar Latin *olifantus), which replaced Old English elpend (“elephant”).
Related phrases
More for "elephant"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.