Plantigrade

//ˈplæntɪɡɹeɪd// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A plantigrade animal; an animal that walks with the entire sole of the foot on the ground.
  2. 2
    an animal that walks with the entire sole of the foot touching the ground as e.g. bears and human beings wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of an animal: walking with the entire sole of the foot on the ground. not-comparable
Adjective
  1. 1
    (of mammals) walking on the whole sole of the foot (as rabbits, raccoons, bears, and humans do) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
digitigradeplantigrade mammalplantigrade mammalunguligrade

Example

More examples

"Primates are plantigrade animals."

Etymology

From French plantigrade, from Latin planta (“sole of the foot”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pléh₂-n̥t-eh₂, from *pleh₂- (“flat”)) + -grade, from Latin gradus (“pace, step”).

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