Meaning & use
hamster
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A small, plump rodent with a short tail and cheek pouches for carrying food, kept as a pet.
Grammar: Plural hamsters; often used before another noun: hamster cage.
Patterns
- keep a hamster
- a pet hamster
My sister's hamster runs on its wheel all night.
The hamster stuffed seeds into its cheeks.
We bought a cage and bedding for the new hamster.
nouncountablebiology
The wild animal of this kind, found in dry parts of Europe and Asia, which stores grain in underground burrows.
Grammar: Used with a, the or in the plural.
Patterns
- wild hamsters
Wild hamsters dig burrows and store food for winter.
Farmers once hunted the hamster for raiding grain stores.
Word forms
| plural | hamsters |
|---|
Common combinations
- pet hamster
- A pet hamster usually lives for about two years.
- hamster wheel
- The hamster ran on its wheel for hours.
- hamster cage
- The hamster cage needs cleaning every week.
- Syrian hamster
- The Syrian hamster is the most common pet breed.
- hamster food
- Hamster food is a mix of seeds and dried vegetables.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rodent
- Rodent is the large animal group that includes hamsters, so it is much wider in meaning.
- gerbil
- A gerbil is a different small pet rodent with a longer tail and slimmer body.
- guinea pig
- A guinea pig is larger, tailless, and not closely related to a hamster.
Word family
- hamsters noun
- the plural form
- hamster wheel noun
- an exercise wheel in a cage, or a tiring routine that gets nowhere
Commonly confused: hamster or gerbil?
hamster vs gerbil
A gerbil has a long furry tail and is more active in the day than a hamster, which has a stubby tail and sleeps through daylight.
Practice
Which spelling is correct for the small pet rodent with cheek pouches?
Choose one answer.
The correct spelling is hamster, with a s before the t. Words like 'hamter' are common misspellings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hamster”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.