Word.ws English Dictionary

elephants

/ˈɛlɪfənts/US/ˈɛləfənts/

elephants is the plural of elephant.

Meaning of elephant

Noun

elephant (countable and uncountable, plural elephants)

  1. A large mammal of the family Elephantidae in the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and native to Africa and Asia.
    • [A] puiſſant olyphant being brought to the place, the grehound ſeming to reioice at the greatnes of the beaſt, rouſed him, and after two or three queſtynges, he lept to the great Olyphante, and after a longe fight ouerthrew hym and kylled hym. So I doubt not but that ſome men […] whiche beeyng ones...1541, Thomas Elyote [i.e., Thomas Elyot], “The Preface. To All the Nobilitee of this Flourishyng Realme of England, Thomas Elyote Knight Desyreth Increase of Vertue and Honour.”, in [Aelius...
    Synonyms:
    elephantid
  2. (figuratively) Anything huge and ponderous.
  3. (paper) Synonym of elephant paper.
    Synonyms:
    elephant paper
  4. (UK, childish) used when counting to add length, so that each count takes about one second
    • Let's play hide and seek. I'll count. One elephant, two elephant, three elephant...
  5. (obsolete, uncountable) Ivory.
    • He sent rich gifts of elephant and gold.1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  6. A xiangqi piece that is moved two points diagonally, may not jump over intervening pieces and may not cross the river.

See all 7 meanings of elephant

Proper noun capitalized: Elephants

Elephants pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) The Ivory Coast national football team

Phrases with elephants

9 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about elephants

What does elephants mean?
Elephants means the Ivory Coast national football team.
What is elephants the plural of?
Elephants is the plural of elephant.
What part of speech is elephants?
Elephants is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce elephants?
Elephants is pronounced /ˈɛlɪfənts/ (UK).

Words near elephants in the dictionary

  1. elephantopin
  2. elephantous
  3. elephantpox
  4. elephantries
  5. elephantry
  6. elephants
  7. elephants in the corner
  8. elephants in the room
  9. elephants' ear
  10. elephants' ears
  11. elephants' graveyard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: elephants (page history and authors); Elephants (page history and authors); elephant (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-elephants.wav.

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