Meaning & use
animal
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountablebiology
A living creature that can move, feeds on other living things and is not a plant, including mammals, birds, fish and insects.
Grammar: A countable noun: one animal, many animals.
Patterns
- an animal of something
- wild animal
- domestic animal
The zoo has more than two hundred kinds of animal.
A fox is a wild animal that hunts at night.
Every animal in the farm yard was fed at dawn.
nouncountable
Any creature of this kind other than a human, especially a mammal.
Grammar: Used in everyday speech to contrast with people: people and animals.
Patterns
- treat animals well
- animal lover
She loves animals, especially dogs.
Animals have their own ways of communicating.
The child asked if the animal at the farm could be petted.
nouncountableinformaloffensivedisapproving
A person who behaves in a rough, violent or uncontrolled way.
Grammar: Insulting when applied to people: he behaved like an animal.
Patterns
- behave like an animal
The crowd were behaving like animals at the match.
The coach said the player was an animal on the field, but he meant it as praise.
Some critics called the attackers animals for their cruelty.
nouncountableinformal
A person with a specified kind of nature or characteristic.
Grammar: Usually after an adjective such as political: a political animal.
Patterns
- a political animal
- a social animal
She is a political animal who loves debate.
He is a social animal and hates staying home.
Humans are pack animals in some ways.
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to animals, or to the physical side of human nature.
Grammar: Used before a noun: animal instincts.
Patterns
- animal instincts
- animal rights
The campaign supports animal rights.
He acted on pure animal instinct and ran.
Animal fats are less common in this recipe.
Word forms
| plural | animals |
|---|
Common combinations
- wild animal
- A wild animal wandered into the village.
- domestic animal
- Dogs and cats are domestic animals.
- endangered animal
- The panda is an endangered animal.
- farm animal
- The children fed the farm animals.
- animal rights
- She campaigns for animal rights.
- party animal
- Everyone knew him as a party animal.
Synonyms and how they differ
- creature
- Creature is a broader, slightly literary word that includes imaginary beings, while animal is the scientific and everyday term.
- beast
- Beast suggests a large, wild or fierce animal and often sounds dramatic.
- critter
- Critter is an informal, often affectionate word for a small animal.
- fauna
- Fauna is a collective scientific word for all the animals of a place, not a single one.
Opposites
Word family
- animate adjective
- alive
- animalistic adjective
- like an animal, often in a rough or primitive way
- animalism noun
- behavior driven by instinct
- animality noun
- the nature of animals
Commonly confused: animal or mammal?
animal vs mammal
A mammal is one type of animal that feeds its young milk; not every animal is a mammal, since birds and fish are animals too.
Practice
Which phrase uses animal to describe a type of person?
Choose one answer.
A political animal is a person who enjoys politics, so animal is figurative. The other phrases describe real creatures.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “animal”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.