gharial
/ˈɡɛə.ɹi.əl/US/ˈɡɛɹ.i.əl/
gharial noun: a crocodilian of species Gavialis gangeticus, of the family Gavialidae.
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
- We crossed the Rapti at Bijlipur, three miles from Balrampur, over a pontoon bridge, from where we would often see marsh crocodile and gharial lying on the sandbanks with their mouths open, absorbing the solar heat.1993, Arjan Singh, The Legend of the Maneater, page 8
- Synonyms:
- fish-eating crocodile, gavial, Indian gharial, gavialid
gharial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
gharial in Hindi
- crocodilian of genus Gavialis
- घड़ियाल ghaṛiyāl
gharial in Tamil
- crocodilian of genus Gavialis
- கரியால் kariyāl
gharial in Marathi
- crocodilian of genus Gavialis
- सुसर susar
gharial in Urdu
- crocodilian of genus Gavialis
- گھڑیال ghaṛiyāl
More languagesFewer languages
- gharial in Bengali
- ঘড়িয়াল ghoṛiẏal, ঘোড়েল ghōṛel
- gharial in Malayalam
- ചീങ്കണ്ണി cīṅkaṇṇi, മീൻമുതല mīṉmutala
- gharial in Punjabi
- ਘੜੀਆਲ ghaṛī'āl
- gharial in Gujarati
- ઘડિયાલ ghaḍiyāl
- gharial in Assamese
- ঘঁৰিয়াল ghõrial
- gharial in Nepali
- घडियाल ghaḍiyāl
- gharial in Arabic
- جَرَال jarāl, جَافِيال jāfiyāl
- Sindhi
- گھڙيال ghaṛiyālu
Examples of gharial in a sentence
- The gharial breathes air into its lungs, like caimans, alligators, and crocodiles.2010, Steve Parker, Crocodiles, page 18:
- One of the goals of our river expedition was to locate gharial.2013, Eric Dinerstein, Discovering Big Cat Country: On the trail of tigers and snow leopards, unnumbered page:
Synonyms of gharial
- fish-eating crocodile
- gavial
- Indian gharial
- gavialid
Forms of gharial
| plural | gharials |
|---|---|
| plural | gharial |
| alternative form | gavial |
| alternative form | gharrial |
| alternative form | ghavial |
Origin of gharial
From Hindi घड़ियाल (ghaṛiyāl). Doublet of gavial.
Words formed from gharial
- false gharial
- Malayan gharial
Words that rhyme with gharial
- aerial
- ariel
- glossarial
- emissarial
- filarial
- furcocercarial
- nareal
- notarial
- proprietarial
- secretarial
- vicarial
- anticercarial
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- antifilarial
- antimalarial
- antimicrofilarial
- apothecarial
- aquarial
- areal
- Arial
- biareal
- bibliothecarial
- bipinnarial
- bursarial
- calendarial
- calvarial
- cancellarial
- cercarial
- cibarial
- circumnarial
- commentarial
- commissarial
- conarial
- corollarial
- diarial
- dictionarial
- dirofilarial
- dissepimentarial
- estuarial
- extraovarial
- fusarial
- garial
- germarial
- herbarial
- impresarial
- interareal
- intergermarial
- internarial
- intracalvarial
- intranarial
- intrapuparial
- kalendarial
- librarial
- macrofilarial
- malarial
- metacercarial
- microfilarial
- miliarial
- monetarial
- narial
- nectareal
Questions about gharial
- What does gharial mean?
- Gharial means a crocodilian of species Gavialis gangeticus, of the family Gavialidae.
- What is gharial in Hindi?
- Gharial in Hindi is घड़ियाल (ghaṛiyāl). See Gharial meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use gharial in a sentence?
- The gharial breathes air into its lungs, like caimans, alligators, and crocodiles.
- What part of speech is gharial?
- Gharial is a noun.
- How do you pronounce gharial?
- Gharial is pronounced /ˈɡɛə.ɹi.əl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gharial?
- The plural of gharial is gharials.
Words near gharial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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-gharial.wav.
Cite this entry: “gharial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gharial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.