noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Any of several diverse small mammals, of the family Tenrecidae, many native to Madagascar.
2. 2
   small often spiny insectivorous mammal of Madagascar; resembles a hedgehog wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

tendractenrecid

Etymology

From French tanrec, from Malagasy tàndraka or trandraka related to Malay landak (“porcupine”); English from 18th century.

Related phrases

Major's long-tailed tenrechedgehog tenrecrice tenrec

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