ZEBRA

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does zebra mean? 

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

1. any of several fleet black-and-white striped African equines

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• ZEBRA (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several fleet black-and-white striped African equines

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

equid; equine (hoofed mammals having slender legs and a flat coat with a narrow mane along the back of the neck)

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

Burchell's zebra; common zebra; Equus Burchelli (of the plains of central and eastern Africa)

Equus zebra zebra; mountain zebra (narrow-striped nearly extinct zebra of southern Africa)

Equus grevyi; grevy's zebra (zebra with less continuous stripes)

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

Equus; genus Equus (type genus of the Equidae: only surviving genus of the family Equidae)

 Context examples 

In Africa, where zebras evolved, flies can carry dangerous blood-borne pathogens.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

Taxonomic family which includes horses, zebras, and asses.

(Equidae, NCI Thesaurus)

A family of hoofed mammals consisting of HORSES, asses, donkeys, and zebras.

(Equidae, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

"We lost 98 percent of the wildebeest population, 75 percent of the zebra population and 30 percent of the elephant population," said Susan Alberts, a biologist at Duke University.

(Born during a drought: Bad news for baboons, NSF)

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

(Perissodactyla, NCI Thesaurus)

Scientists have long wondered about the evolutionary impetus behind zebras' coat patterns.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

Results showed the horse flies hovered over both types of animals at roughly the same rate but, over zebras, they did not always slow down fast enough to land successfully.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

This reduced ability to land on the zebra's coat may be due to stripes disrupting the visual system of the horse flies during their final moments of approach.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

Scientists from the University of Bristol and UC Davis say zebras may have gotten their stripes to confuse ectoparasites, such as flies.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)

The researchers observed tabanid horse flies around zebras and domestic horses in captive settings and they found the flies had a harder time landing on zebras than on the monochrome coats of the horses.

(Zebra stripes may 'dazzle' pathogen-packing horse flies, Wikinews)