Zilant

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A winged snake- or dragon-like creature in the mythology of the Russian, Tatar, Chuvash and Mari peoples around Kazan. rare

    "The creature zilant is depicted. Part snake, part dragon, it has wings and a curled tail, for example on the coat of arms of Kazan dating from 1730. While some of the legends associated with the zilant link it to Bulgar conceptions of "flying snakes" found in trees, others legends connect the zilant to the Altai mountains, and specific Turkic ancestors of the Tatars, the Kypchaks."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of zilant. alt-of

Example

More examples

"The creature zilant is depicted. Part snake, part dragon, it has wings and a curled tail, for example on the coat of arms of Kazan dating from 1730. While some of the legends associated with the zilant link it to Bulgar conceptions of "flying snakes" found in trees, others legends connect the zilant to the Altai mountains, and specific Turkic ancestors of the Tatars, the Kypchaks."

Etymology

From Russian Зилант (Zilant), from Tatar yılan/елан (yılan, “snake”).

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