RHINOCEROS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rhinoceros mean? 

• RHINOCEROS (noun)
  The noun RHINOCEROS has 1 sense:

1. massive powerful herbivorous odd-toed ungulate of southeast Asia and Africa having very thick skin and one or two horns on the snout

  Familiarity information: RHINOCEROS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RHINOCEROS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Massive powerful herbivorous odd-toed ungulate of southeast Asia and Africa having very thick skin and one or two horns on the snout

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

rhino; rhinoceros

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

odd-toed ungulate; perissodactyl; perissodactyl mammal (placental mammals having hooves with an odd number of toes on each foot)

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

Indian rhinoceros; Rhinoceros unicornis (having one horn)

Rhinoceros antiquitatis; woolly rhinoceros (extinct thick-haired species of Arctic regions)

Ceratotherium simum; Diceros simus; white rhinoceros (large light-grey African rhinoceros having two horns; endangered; sometimes placed in genus Diceros)

black rhinoceros; Diceros bicornis (African rhino; in danger of extinction)

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

family Rhinocerotidae; rhinoceros family; Rhinocerotidae (rhinoceroses)

 Context examples 

He glanced up at the white rhinoceros.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Beast had a head like that of a rhinoceros, only there were five eyes in its face.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

The taxonomic order of mammals that includes odd-toed ungulates such as horses, zebras, tapirs, and rhinoceroses.

(Perissodactyla, NCI Thesaurus)

The discovery shows the Ancient North Siberians endured extreme conditions in the region 31,000 years ago and survived by hunting woolly mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and bison.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)

Researchers have now used ancient protein sequencing – based on ground-breaking technology called mass spectrometry – to retrieve genetic information from the tooth of a 1.77 million year old Stephanorhinus – an extinct rhinoceros which lived in Eurasia during the Pleistocene.

(‘Game-changing’ research could solve evolution mysteries, University of Cambridge)

Like a dado round the room was the jutting line of splendid heavy game-heads, the best of their sort from every quarter of the world, with the rare white rhinoceros of the Lado Enclave drooping its supercilious lip above them all.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)