Menagerie
noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A collection of live wild animals as an exhibition historically associated with the aristocracy and considered a precursor of modern zoos.
- 2 the facility where wild animals are housed for exhibition wordnet
- 3 The enclosure where they are kept.
"In Sacramento a crazed woman opened the cages of a circus menagerie for fear the animals might starve to death, and had been mauled by a lioness."
- 4 a collection of live animals for study or display wordnet
- 5 A diverse or miscellaneous group.
"[Brigitte] Bardot, the stunning, desirable beauty who once stood for sexual freedom for women, spent the latter part of her life at her home near Saint Tropez with her husband and a menagerie of pets."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 The orchestra of a theatre. obsolete, slang
Example
More examples"In Tom's new novel, extraterrestrials pursue the ambitious goal of presenting all the life forms in the galaxy in a single vast menagerie. Individual humans are also carried off for this purpose and -- due to the enormous diversity of species -- thrown together with the apes of the planet Earth, without distinction. John found that highly offensive."
Etymology
From French ménagerie, derived from ménager (“to keep house”), household. Housekeeping used to include taking care of domestic animals.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.