griffin
noun
Simple meaning
Winged monster with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
grifinSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹɪfɪn
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.
noun
Winged monster with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion
A griffon vulture, a large vulture (Gyps fulvus) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of the Bible.
An English variety of apple.
A cadet newly arrived in British India: half English, half Indian.
A rural municipality in south-east Saskatchewan, which includes the community; in full, the Rural Municipality of Griffin No. 66.
A community in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Winged monster with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion
Used this way, griffin 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 griffin
- “In ancient myths, a griffin is a powerful, majestic creature.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: winged monster with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion
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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.