carnivorous
adjective
Simple meaning
Predatory or flesh-eating.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahrniveruhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑɹˈnɪvɚəs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Relating to or characteristic of carnivores
“The lion and other carnivorous animals.”
Predatory or flesh-eating.
botany
Insectivorous: capable of trapping insects and absorbing nutrient from them.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Relating to or characteristic of carnivores
Used this way, carnivorous is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“The lion and other carnivorous animals.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use carnivorous
- “The lion and other carnivorous animals.”adjective
- “Carnivorous plants are capable of trapping and digesting small animals especially insects.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Typically having large ears and feeding primarily on insects.
Plants adapted to attract and capture and digest primarily insects but also other small animals.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.