FAUNA (faunae)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: faunae   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fauna mean? 

• FAUNA (noun)
  The noun FAUNA has 2 senses:

1. all the animal life in a particular region or period

2. a living organism characterized by voluntary movement

  Familiarity information: FAUNA used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FAUNA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

All the animal life in a particular region or period

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

fauna; zoology

Context example:

the zoology of the Pliocene epoch

Hypernyms ("fauna" is a kind of...):

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection (several things grouped together or considered as a whole)

Meronyms (members of "fauna"):

animal group (a group of animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fauna"):

avifauna (the birds of a particular region or period)

Holonyms ("fauna" is a member of...):

biology; biota (all the plant and animal life of a particular region)

Antonym:

flora (all the plant life in a particular region or period)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A living organism characterized by voluntary movement

Classified under:

Nouns with no superordinates

Synonyms:

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna

Hypernyms ("fauna" is a kind of...):

being; organism (a living thing that has (or can develop) the ability to act or function independently)

Meronyms (parts of "fauna"):

caput; head (the upper part of the human body or the front part of the body in animals; contains the face and brains)

face (the part of an animal corresponding to the human face)

Meronyms (substance of "fauna"):

animal tissue (the tissue in the bodies of animals)

Domain member category:

crop; graze; pasture (let feed in a field or pasture or meadow)

crested; topknotted; tufted ((of a bird or animal) having a usually ornamental tuft or process on the head; often used in combination)

bone-covered ((of animals) armored with bone)

free-swimming; unattached ((of animals) able to swim about; not attached)

hispid ((of animals or plants) having stiff coarse hairs or bristles)

flesh-eating; meat-eating; zoophagous ((of animals) carnivorous)

ritual killing; sacrifice (the act of killing (an animal or person) in order to propitiate a deity)

drench (force to drink)

phytophagic; phytophagous; phytophilous; plant-eating ((of animals) feeding on plants)

all-devouring ((of animals) both plant-eating and flesh-eating)

insectivorous ((of animals and plants) feeding on insects)

epizootic ((of animals) epidemic among animals of a single kind within a particular region)

adult; big; full-grown; fully grown; grown; grownup ((of animals) fully developed)

half-blooded; half-bred; half-breed ((of animals) having only one purebred parent)

registered ((of animals) officially recorded with or certified by a recognized breed association; especially in a stud book)

unregistered ((of animals) not recorded with or certified by an official breed association)

gregarious ((of animals) tending to form a group with others of the same species)

social (tending to move or live together in groups or colonies of the same kind)

domesticate; tame (make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans)

tracking; trailing (the pursuit (of a person or animal) by following tracks or marks they left behind)

micro-organism; microorganism (any organism of microscopic size)

actinomycete (any bacteria (some of which are pathogenic for humans and animals) belonging to the order Actinomycetales)

trap (a device in which something (usually an animal) can be caught and penned)

humaneness (the quality of compassion or consideration for others (people or animals))

body; organic structure (the entire physical structure of an organism (an animal, plant, or human being))

side (either the left or right half of a body)

nose (the sense of smell (especially in animals))

diet (the usual food and drink consumed by an organism (person or animal))

transmitter; vector (any agent (person or animal or microorganism) that carries and transmits a disease)

sitter (an organism (person or animal) that sits)

stander (an organism (person or animal) that stands)

wart (any small rounded protuberance (as on certain plants or animals))

schistosome dermatitis; swimmer's itch (a sensitization reaction to repeated invasion of the skin by cercariae of schistosomes)

bone; debone (remove the bones from)

domesticate; domesticise; domesticize; reclaim; tame (overcome the wildness of; make docile and tractable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fauna"):

metazoan (any animal of the subkingdom Metazoa; all animals except protozoans and sponges)

giant (any creature of exceptional size)

survivor (an animal that survives in spite of adversity)

mutant (an animal that has undergone mutation)

herbivore (any animal that feeds chiefly on grass and other plants)

insectivore (any organism that feeds mainly on insects)

acrodont (an animal having teeth consolidated with the summit of the alveolar ridge without sockets)

pleurodont (an animal having teeth fused with the inner surface of the alveolar ridge without sockets)

zooplankton (animal constituent of plankton; mainly small crustaceans and fish larvae)

conceptus; embryo; fertilized egg (an animal organism in the early stages of growth and differentiation that in higher forms merge into fetal stages but in lower forms terminate in commencement of larval life)

chordate (any animal of the phylum Chordata having a notochord or spinal column)

invertebrate (any animal lacking a backbone or notochord; the term is not used as a scientific classification)

pest (any unwanted and destructive insect or other animal that attacks food or crops or livestock etc.)

omnivore (an animal that feeds on both animal and vegetable substances)

predator; predatory animal (any animal that lives by preying on other animals)

prey; quarry (animal hunted or caught for food)

game (animal hunted for food or sport)

hexapod (an animal having six feet)

biped (an animal with two feet)

larva (the immature free-living form of most invertebrates and amphibians and fish which at hatching from the egg is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose)

racer (an animal that races)

fictional animal (animals that exist only in fiction (usually in children's stories))

captive (an animal that is confined)

mate (the partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner))

offspring; young (any immature animal)

critter (a regional term for 'creature' (especially for domestic animals))

creepy-crawly (an animal that creeps or crawls (such as worms or spiders or insects))

darter (a person or other animal that moves abruptly and rapidly)

peeper (an animal that makes short high-pitched sounds)

homeotherm; homoiotherm; homotherm (an animal that has a body temperature that is relatively constant and independent of the environmental temperature)

ectotherm; poikilotherm (an animal whose body temperature varies with the temperature of its surroundings; any animal except birds and mammals)

range animal (any animal that lives and grazes in the grassy open land of western North America (especially horses, cattle, sheep))

varment; varmint (any usually predatory wild animal considered undesirable; e.g., coyote)

scavenger (any animal that feeds on refuse and other decaying organic matter)

work animal (an animal trained for and used for heavy labor)

domestic animal; domesticated animal (any of various animals that have been tamed and made fit for a human environment)

feeder (an animal that feeds on a particular source of food)

migrator (an animal (especially birds and fish) that travels between different habitats at particular times of the year)

molter; moulter (an animal (especially birds and arthropods and reptiles) that periodically shed their outer layer (feathers or cuticle or skin or hair))

pet (a domesticated animal kept for companionship or amusement)

stayer (a person or other animal having powers of endurance or perseverance)

stunt (a creature (especially a whale) that has been prevented from attaining full growth)

marine animal; marine creature; sea animal; sea creature (any of numerous animals inhabiting the sea including e.g. fishes and molluscs and many mammals)

female (an animal that produces gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes (spermatozoa))

male (an animal that produces gametes (spermatozoa) that can fertilize female gametes (ova))

adult (any mature animal)

pureblood; purebred; thoroughbred (a pedigreed animal of unmixed lineage; used especially of horses)

Holonyms ("fauna" is a member of...):

animal kingdom; Animalia; kingdom Animalia (taxonomic kingdom comprising all living or extinct animals)

 Context examples 

The findings, said scientists, indicate fauna from the prehistoric megacontinent Gondwanaland migrated to Laurasia.

(Cretaceous baby snake fossil found in Myanmar, Wikinews)

They say it also points to a fundamental shift toward more rapid venom delivery mechanisms to exert very different pressures on the local fauna.

(Researchers find oldest fossil evidence of modern African venomous snakes, NSF)

There are signs of contamination through mercury, which makes an impact on the fauna and the local population.

(Report unveils 381 new plant and animal species in Amazon, Agência Brasil)

This discovery suggests that the fauna of northern and southern Africa were very different in the Cretaceous Period.

(Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod dinosaur in Tanzania, National Science Foundation)

There may have been certain environmental features, such as deserts, large waterways and/or mountain ranges, that would have limited the movement of animals and promoted the evolution of regionally distinct faunas.

(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)

This new dinosaur gives us important information about African fauna during a time of evolutionary change.

(New dinosaur with heart-shaped tail offers clues to evolution of Africa's ecosystems, National Science Foundation)

If every living thing were swept from the country the future explorer would find upon the walls of these caves ample evidence of the strange fauna—the dinosaurs, iguanodons, and fish lizards—which had lived so recently upon earth.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was my business to visit this little-known back-country and to examine its fauna, which furnished me with the materials for several chapters for that great and monumental work upon zoology which will be my life's justification.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)