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elephant

noun

Simple meaning

Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae not also of the genera Mammuthus and Primelephas.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ehluhfuhnt

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɛləfənt

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. in particular

    Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae not also of the genera Mammuthus and Primelephas.

  2. figurative

    Anything huge and ponderous.

  3. The 105th sura (chapter) of the Quran.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (in particular) Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae not also of the genera Mammuthus and Primelephas.

Used this way, elephant is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
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 elephant

  • “The large elephant gracefully walked through the savanna with its calf.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

elephant grasselephant sealbaby elephantwild elephantbull elephantnorthern elephantelephant tusks

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • elephant earnounCompound term

    Any plant of the genus Alocasia having large showy basal leaves and boat-shaped spathe and reddish berries.

  • elephant sealnounCompound term

    Either of two large northern Atlantic earless seals having snouts like trunks.

  • elephant treenounCompound term

    Small tree or shrub of the southwestern United States having a spicy odor and odd-pinnate leaves and small clusters of white flowers.

  • elephant-tusknounCompound term

    Annual of southern United States to Mexico having large whitish or yellowish flowers mottled with purple and a long curving beak.

  • elephant yamnounCompound term

    Putrid-smelling aroid of southeastern Asia (especially the Philippines) grown for its edible tuber.

  • elephant birdnounCompound term

    Huge (to 9 ft.) extinct flightless bird of Madagascar.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

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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.