rhinoceros
Americannoun
plural
rhinoceroses,plural
rhinoceros-
any of several large, thick-skinned, perissodactyl mammals of the family Rhinocerotidae, of Africa and India, having one or two upright horns on the snout: all rhinoceroses are endangered.
-
Douay Bible. unicorn.
noun
Usage
Plural word for rhinoceros The plural form of rhinoceros is rhinoceroses. The plurals of several other singular words that end in -s are also formed in this way, such as pass/passes, lotus/lotuses, and dress/dresses. In some words derived from Latin that end in -us, the irregular plural ending -i is used, as in fungus/fungi and cactus/cacti. Sometimes, for humorous effect or as an overcorrection, people apply the same kind of ending to rhinoceros (because it sounds like it ends in -us), as in rhinoceri. However, this is not a valid plural form of rhinoceros.
Other Word Forms
- rhinocerotic adjective
Etymology
Origin of rhinoceros
1300–50; Middle English rinoceros < Late Latin rhīnoceros < Greek rhīnókerōs, equivalent to rhīno- rhino- + -kerōs -horned, adj. derivative of kéras horn (of an animal)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Elephants and rhinoceroses lived alongside bison, aurochs, horses, and deer.
From Science Daily
Airport authorities and police seized six pieces of rhinoceros horn and around 12 kilograms of unidentified meat used to conceal them inside a polystyrene icebox.
From Barron's
There were nine of them, varying in size from rhinoceros to elephant.
From Literature
Imagine a fifty-pound pigeon with the feet of a turkey, the beak of a toucan, and the prehistoric charm of a rhinoceros.
From Literature
Fossil evidence also revealed that these warm-adapted hippos lived alongside cold-climate animals such as mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses -- an unusual ecological mix that highlights the complexity of Ice Age environments.
From Science Daily
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
