What does "tail" mean?
The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
Tail
/teɪl/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
- Grammar: tail is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: rear, shadow, acknowledgment, acknowledgments.
- Useful contrasts: bulk, bullethead, caput.
- Usage evidence: A rabbit has long ears and a short tail.
How to use "tail"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "tail" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "tail" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "tail" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "tail" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "tail" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "rear" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "tail", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca.
"Most primates have a tail and fangs."
- 2 Limitation of inheritance to certain heirs.
"tail male"
- 3 the posterior part of the body of a vertebrate especially when elongated and extending beyond the trunk or main part of the body wordnet
- 4 An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails.
"Duretus writes a great praise of the Distill'd waters of those tails that hang on Willow Trees."
- 5 the rear part of a ship wordnet
Show 35 more definitions
- 6 The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything.
- 7 the rear part of an aircraft wordnet
- 8 The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird.
- 9 (usually plural) the reverse side of a coin that does not bear the representation of a person's head wordnet
- 10 The tail-end of any object.
"And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the taile, […]"
- 11 the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on wordnet
- 12 The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage.
- 13 a spy employed to follow someone and report their movements wordnet
- 14 The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind.
- 15 any projection that resembles the tail of an animal wordnet
- 16 The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part.
- 17 the time of the last part of something wordnet
- 18 The part of a distribution most distant from the mode.
"long tail"
- 19 One who surreptitiously follows another.
- 20 The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers.
- 21 The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y.
- 22 The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse. in-plural
- 23 All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on.
"A sequence (a#95;n) is said to be frequently 0 if every tail of the sequence contains 0."
- 24 The buttocks or backside. US, colloquial
"By Goddis sydes, syns I her thyder broughte, / She hath gote me more money with her tayle / Than hath some shyppe that into Bordews sayle."
- 25 The penis of a person or animal. slang
- 26 Sexual intercourse. slang, uncountable
"I'm gonna get me some tail tonight."
- 27 The stern; the back of the kayak.
- 28 A train or company of attendants; a retinue.
"Ah! if you Saxon Duinhé-wassal (English gentleman) saw but the chief with his tail on. […] that is, with all his usual followers"
- 29 The distal tendon of a muscle.
- 30 A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies.
- 31 A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style.
- 32 A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing.
- 33 One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times.
- 34 A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything.
- 35 The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem.
- 36 A tailing.
- 37 The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile.
- 38 A tailcoat. colloquial, dated
- 39 Synonym of pigtail (“a short length of twisted electrical wire”).
- 40 The final fraction of a distillation run, typically containing impurities and fusel oils.
Verb
- 1 To hold by the end; said of a timber when it rests upon a wall or other support; with in or into
- 2 remove the stalk of fruits or berries wordnet
- 3 To swing with the stern in a certain direction; said of a vessel at anchor.
"This vessel tails downstream."
- 4 remove or shorten the tail of an animal wordnet
- 5 To follow or hang to, like a tail; to be attached closely to, as that which can not be evaded.
"Nevertheless his bond of two thousand pounds, wherewith he was tailed, continued uncancelled."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 go after with the intent to catch wordnet
- 7 To follow and observe surreptitiously. transitive
"Tail that car!"
- 8 To pull or draw by the tail.
"The conqu'ring foe they soon afailid, First Trulla stav'd, and Cerdon tail'd"
Adjective
- 1 Limited; abridged; reduced; curtailed.
"estate tail"
Proper Noun
- 1 A Chinese constellation coinciding with the tail of Scorpius, one of the 28 lunar mansions and the tail of Azure Dragon. Chinese
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:Tail."
Antonyms
Example
"A rabbit has long ears and a short tail."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "tail"?
Common synonyms include: rear, shadow, acknowledgment, acknowledgments, adherent, aeroplane.
How do you use "tail" in a sentence?
A rabbit has long ears and a short tail.
How do you pronounce "tail"?
Pronounced /teɪl/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail.
Etymology 2
From Anglo-Norman, probably from a shortened form of entail.
Etymology 3
From tail, a semantic loan from Chinese 尾.