Hibernation

//ˌhaɪ.bəːˈneɪ.ʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A state of minimum power consumption, inactivity and metabolic depression in some animals during winter. countable, uncountable

    "The bears are in hibernation."

  2. 2
    the act of retiring into inactivity wordnet
  3. 3
    A hypothetical state of minimum power consumption, inactivity and metabolic depression in humans during long space flights. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    cessation from or slowing of activity during the winter; especially slowing of metabolism in some animals wordnet
  5. 5
    A standby state which conserves power by writing the contents of the memory to disk and completely power off the computer, in order that one will resume the session from the disk. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    the torpid or resting state in which some animals pass the winter wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
beauty sleepbeddy-byebedtimeblanket drillbye-byedormancy

Example

More examples

"If you consider the objective of hibernation, I think it's the response of animals trying to somehow survive the winter season with its lack of food."

Etymology

From Latin hibernātus, from hibernō, from hībernus (“winter”).

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