echidna

/əˈkɪdnə/

echidna noun: any of the small spined monotremes in the family Tachyglossidae, the four extant species of which are found in Australia and southern New Guinea.

Image: Krigore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

echidna (plural echidnas or echidnae)

Any of the small spined monotremes in the family Tachyglossidae, the four extant species of which are found in Australia and southern New Guinea.

Synonyms:

spiny anteater, bunning, tachyglossid

Proper noun capitalized: Echidna

IPA/ɪˈkɪd.nə/

Echidna

(Greek) A female monster who, along with Typhon, mothered the vast majority of the famous monsters and creatures of Greek mythology.
- Horrible, hideous, and of hellish race, / Borne of the brooding of Echidna base, / Or other like infernall furies kinde […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

echidna meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Assamese and Tagalog

echidna in Hindi

any of the four species of small spined monotremes: एकिडना ekiḍnā

echidna in Assamese

any of the four species of small spined monotremes: গোৱালিয়ান güalian, একিনা ekina

echidna in Tagalog

any of the four species of small spined monotremes: ekidna

More languagesFewer languages

echidna in Arabic: إِيكِيدْنَا ʔikīdnā, نَضْناض naḍnāḍ
echidna in Indonesian: landak semut, nokdiak
echidna in Thai: อิคิดนา ì-kít-nâa
echidna in Vietnamese: thú lông nhím

Synonyms of echidna

Forms of echidna

plural	echidnas
plural	echidnae

Origin of echidna

Coined in scientific literature around 1811. Probably from Ancient Greek ἔχιδνα (ékhidna, “snake, viper”) via Latin echidna. Compare ἐχῖνος (ekhînos, “hedgehog, etc.”). However, this sense is problematic (unless it is a reference to the ant-eating tongue). The name perhaps belongs to Latin echinus (“sea urchin, hedgehog”) from the aforementioned Ancient Greek term's alternate sense of "sea-urchin" (also "sharp points"), which Watkins explains as "snake-eater", from ἔχις (ékhis, “snake”), though it may actually be from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰis (“hedgehog, hedgehog-like animals”). The 1810 Encyclopaedia Britannica deduces thus the animal's alternative name as "porcupine ant-eater". Alternatively, and perhaps more likely, the name refers to Echidna as the name of a serpent-nymph in Greek mythology, "a beautiful woman in the upper part of her body; but instead of legs and feet, she had from the waist downward, the form of a serpent", in which case the animal was named for its mixed features (early naturalists doubted whether it was a mammal or amphibian). Ultimately, the etymology may be from a synthesis of all the roots above. (From OED.)

From Ancient Greek Ἔχιδνα (Ékhidna, “Echidna”), from ἔχιδνα (ékhidna, “viper”).

Words formed from echidna

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna
Barton's long-beaked echidna
cyclops long-beaked echidna
eastern long-beaked echidna
echidnine
long-beaked echidna
short-beaked echidna
Sir David's long-beaked echidna
western long-beaked echidna

Questions about echidna

What does echidna mean?: Echidna means any of the small spined monotremes in the family Tachyglossidae, the four extant species of which are found in Australia and southern New Guinea.
What is echidna in Hindi?: Echidna in Hindi is एकिडना (ekiḍnā). See Echidna meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is echidna?: Echidna can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce echidna?: Echidna is pronounced /əˈkɪdnə/.
What is the plural of echidna?: The plural of echidna is echidnas.

Words near echidna in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: echidna (page history and authors); Echidna (page history and authors); echidna (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-echidna.ogg.

Cite this entry: “echidna.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/echidna. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.