Perissodactyl
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any ungulate mammal with an odd number of toes and belonging to the Perissodactyla, an equid, a tapir, or a rhinoceros.
"The chalicotheres were among the strangest mammals that ever lived. They were perissodactyls - relatives of horses, rhinos and tapirs - and if all you had seen of one was its head, you might have mistaken it for a very strange horse."
- 2 placental mammals having hooves with an odd number of toes on each foot wordnet
Example
More examples"The chalicotheres were among the strangest mammals that ever lived. They were perissodactyls - relatives of horses, rhinos and tapirs - and if all you had seen of one was its head, you might have mistaken it for a very strange horse."
Etymology
From Ancient Greek περισσός (perissós, “uneven”) + δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “a finger, toe”). Compare the genus name Perissodactyla.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.