gavial
/ˈɡeɪ.vi.əl/
gavial is the alternative form of gharial.
Meaning of gharial
Noun
gharial (plural gharials or gharial)
- A crocodilian of species Gavialis gangeticus, of the family Gavialidae.
- Placed in a family by itself, the Gavialidae, the gharial has long been separated from the rest of the crocodilian stock, with the possible exception of Tomistoma (Densmore 1983).1992, John B. Thorbjarnarson, Harry Messel, F. Wayne King, James Perran Ross, editors, Crocodiles: An Action Plan for Their Conservation, page 112
- Synonyms:
- fish-eating crocodile, gavial, Indian gharial, gavialid
Forms of gavial
| plural | gavials |
|---|
Origin of gavial
From Hindi घड़ियाल (ghaṛiyāl). Doublet of gharial.
Words formed from gavial
Questions about gavial
- What is gavial the alternative form of?
- Gavial is the alternative form of gharial.
- How do you pronounce gavial?
- Gavial is pronounced /ˈɡeɪ.vi.əl/.
Words near gavial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gavial (page history and authors); gharial (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-gavial.wav.
Cite this entry: “gavial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gavial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.