Hibernaculum

//haɪ.bəˈnak.juː.ləm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The place where a hibernating animal shelters for the winter.

    "Aeolus Cave, which is set into a wooded hillside in Dorset, Vermont, is believed to be the largest bat hibernaculum in New England; it is estimated that before white-nose hit, nearly three hundred thousand bats—some from as far away as Ontario and Rhode Island—came there to spend the winter."

  2. 2
    A bud, case, or protective covering that a plant uses to survive the challenging environmental conditions during a dormancy period.

Synonyms

All synonyms
hibernacle

Example

More examples

"Aeolus Cave, which is set into a wooded hillside in Dorset, Vermont, is believed to be the largest bat hibernaculum in New England; it is estimated that before white-nose hit, nearly three hundred thousand bats—some from as far away as Ontario and Rhode Island—came there to spend the winter."

Etymology

From Latin hībernāculum (“winter quarters”).

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