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elephant

[el-uh-fuh

nt]

Example Sentences Origin

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noun, plural -phants, (especially collectively

) -phant for 1.

either of two large, five-toed pachyderms of the family Elephantidae, characterized by a long, prehensile trunk formed of the nose and upper lip, including Loxodonta africana (African elephant), with enormous flapping ears, two fingerlike projections at the end of the trunk, and ivory tusks, and Elephas maximus (Indian elephant), with smaller ears, one projection at the end of the trunk, and ivory tusks almost exclusively in males: L. africana is threatened; E. maximus is endangered.

a representation of this animal, used in the U.S. since 1874 as the emblem of the Republican party.

white elephant.

Chiefly British. a size of drawing or writing paper, 23 × 28 inches (58 × 71 cm).

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Compare double elephant.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English (< Anglo-French ) < Latin elephantus < Greek elephant- (stem of eléphās) elephant; replacing Middle English olifaunt < Anglo-French < Vulgar Latin *olifantus, for Latin elephantus (with regular Latin o from e before dark l)

Related forms

el·e·phan·toid, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To elephant

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Elephant is always a great word to know.

So is quincunx. Does it mean:

an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

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Example Sentences

Northern elephant seals are long-distance mariners, voyaging for two to eight months at a time without making landfall.

Other experts add that if an elephant were to eat the fruit off the ground, it wouldn't wait for the fruit to ferment.

There was little chance of missing the elephant in the room.

EXPAND

Northern elephant seals are long-distance mariners, voyaging for two to eight months at a time without making landfall.

Other experts add that if an elephant were to eat the fruit off the ground, it wouldn't wait for the fruit to ferment.

There was little chance of missing the elephant in the room.

Topsy the elephant is a killer and now she must pay the ultimate price.

It follows students as they study abroad, and it is the elephant in the room when students are learning to lead.

Then, on a pound for pound basis, the cells of an elephant consume far less energy than those of a mouse.

Elephant handlers, or mahouts, work closely with one elephant for its entire life.

The lush riverside vegetation sways as a herd of elephant wends its way between the broken pools.

If the elephant had much larger neurons, it could transmit information faster.

If you stay in one of the cabins, an elephant will-no kidding-bring you breakfast.

The use and abuse of underpaid adjuncts is academia's smelly elephant sitting in the corner of the living room.

India could yet prove the sceptics wrong, but the elephant must get its skates on.

Ask a group of blind men to touch an elephant and one might declare its tail a snake, while another might call its tusk a spear.

The exhibit starts with an introduction to the various branches of the elephant family tree.

In virtually all my interviews, guilt was the elephant in the room.

Chinese demand for ivory has driven up elephant poaching.

But the giant elephant shrew's nose is long enough to sniff out some juicy insects for its next meal.

One day he returned from elephant hunting to find his village slaughtered, and he was captured and sold into slavery.

Under this second flap, an elephant and tiger sink into a tar pit while the elephant's leg rises in a separate timed motion.

The paper then becomes much less daunting as you are taking pieces of the elephant rather than the whole elephant at one time.

America is now the rogue elephant that subjugates and tramples the people of the world".

Any wild elephant group is, in essence, one large and highly sensitive organism.

He relished toasting slices of elephant heart on a pronged stick over a fire.

Today, a mural depicting a jumping elephant is painted on the wall of a building close to where the incident took place.

Thanks to jbarman for noticing the elephant in the room and to rblackstar and royal_blue for continuing the discussion.

The elephant screamed and thrashed the bushes with his trunk, tottering on three legs.

His success at stemming elephant poaching, he believes, may have led someone to sabotage his plane.

The project has, so far, led to a mechanical giraffe and an elephant.

Polite society is all about pretending that the elephant is not in the room.

Learn how the ears have it when identifying elephant species.

Second, the fresh fruit doesn't spend enough time in the elephant to ferment and produce alcohol there.

Then of course there's the elephant in the room: pre-natal face prediction.

OK, shark attacks and elephant attacks occur much less often than people think.

The elephant in the room is the federal student loan program.

Not as much as elephant seals, say, but far from insignificantly.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

elephant (ˈɛlɪfənt)

—n , pl -phants, -phant
1.	either of the two proboscidean mammals of the family Elephantidae. The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the larger species, with large flapping ears and a less humped back than the Indian elephant (Elephas maximus), of S and SE Asia
2.	chiefly (Brit) a size of writing paper, 23 by 28 inches
3.	elephant in the room an obvious truth deliberately ignored by all parties in a situation

[C13: from Latin elephantus, from Greek elephas elephant, ivory, of uncertain origin]

'elephantoid

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

elephant

c.1300, olyfaunt, from O.Fr. oliphant, from L. elephantus, from Gk. elephas (gen. elephantos) "elephant, ivory," probably from a non-I.E. language, likely via Phoenician (cf. Hamitic elu "elephant," source of the word for it in many Sem. languages, or possibly from Skt. ibhah "elephant"). Re-spelled

EXPAND

after 1550 on L. model. As an emblem of the Republican Party in U.S. politics, 1860. White elephant (1851) supposedly arose from the practice of the King of Siam of presenting one of the sacred albino elephants to a courtier who had fallen from favor; the gift was a great honor, but the cost of proper upkeep of one was ruinous. To see the elephant "be acquainted with life, gain knowledge by experience" is an Amer.Eng. colloquialism from 1835.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

elephant definition

A symbol of the Republican party, introduced in a series of political cartoons by Thomas Nast during the congressional elections of 1874. (Compare donkey.)

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

elephant definition

Large, grey, four-legged mammal.

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Elephant definition

not found in Scripture except indirectly in the original Greek word (elephantinos) translated "of ivory" in Rev. 18:12, and in the Hebrew word (shenhabim, meaning "elephant's tooth") rendered "ivory" in 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chr. 9:21.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

elephant

see see the elephant; white elephant.