What does "ermine" mean?

A weasel found in northern latitudes (Mustela erminea in Eurasia, Alaska, and the Arctic, Mustela haidarum in Haida Gwaii, Mustela richardsonii in the rest of North America); its dark brown fur turns white in winter, apart from the black tip of the tail.

What is a synonym for "ermine"?

Common synonyms include: achievement, alerion, animal, animal charge, annulet, antelope.

Ermine

//ˈɜːmɪn// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
A weasel found in northern latitudes (Mustela erminea in Eurasia, Alaska, and the Arctic, Mustela haidarum in Haida Gwaii, Mustela richardsonii in the rest of North America); its dark brown fur turns white in winter, apart from the black tip of the tail. countable, uncountable
2
mustelid of Northern Hemisphere in its white winter coat wordnet
3
The white fur of this animal, traditionally seen as a symbol of purity and used for judges' robes. countable, uncountable
4
the expensive white fur of the ermine wordnet
5
The office of a judge. broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable

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6
The fur of this animal, used as a heraldic tincture: a white field with a repeating pattern of stylized black spots. countable, uncountable
7
Any of various moths, especially in the family Yponomeutidae countable, uncountable

Verb

1
To clothe with ermine. transitive

Adjective

1
In blazon, of the colour ermine (white with black spots). not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms

achievement alerion animal animal charge annulet antelope

Example

More examples

"If you go out on a full moon night dressed in an ermine coat while holding a stoat figurine in either hand and say 'I like stoats' 666 times in a row, a portal to the Stoatworld will open, where the demonically beautiful demon stoats live."

Etymology

From Middle English ermine, ermin, ermyn, from Old French ermin, ermine, hermine. There are two main theories for the origin of Old French ermine. Germanic origin is suggested via Old Dutch *harmino (“stoat skin”), from *harmo (“stoat, weasel”) (compare Dutch hermelijn and dialectal herm), from Proto-Germanic *harmǭ, *harmô (compare Old English hearma, Old High German harmo (harmin (adjective), obsolete German Harm), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱormō (compare Romansch carmun, obsolete Lithuanian šarmuõ). Romance sources identify the animal with the corresponding word for Armenian, possibly from Medieval Latin mūs Armenius (“Armenian mouse”) or a posterior compound.

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