Word.ws English Dictionary

groundhog

Syllables: ground·hogUK/ˈɡɹaʊndhɒɡ//ˈɡɹaʊn(d)ˌ(h)ɔɡ/

groundhog noun: a red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.

groundhog: a red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America
Image: Cephas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

groundhog (plural groundhogs)

  1. A red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.
    • In 1909, local newspapers reported that the governor of Pennsylvania attended the group’s annual feast and 400 groundhogs were served to 400 guests.2016 February 1, Lisa Rose, “Punxsutawney Phil: Friend or foe? A Groundhog Day investigation”, in CNN, archived from the original on 25 Apr 2016
    • Many sources claim that the original Groundhog Day took place in 1887, when residents of Punxsutawney set out to Gobbler’s Knob, known as Phil’s “official” home, but the first piece of evidence Yoder found of townspeople trusting a groundhog for the weather, a diary entry, was dated 1840.2023 February 1, Scottie Andrew, “The bizarre history of Groundhog Day”, in CNN, archived from the original on 18 Jul 2024
  2. (rare) The aardvark.
  3. (uncommon) Synonym of groundlubber
    Synonyms:
    groundlubber

Synonyms of groundhog

Forms of groundhog

pluralgroundhogs
alternative formground-hog
alternative formground hog

Plural of groundhog: groundhogs

Origin of groundhog

From ground + hog.

Words formed from groundhog

Phrases with groundhog

Questions about groundhog

What does groundhog mean?
Groundhog means a red-brown marmot, Marmota monax, native to North America.
What part of speech is groundhog?
Groundhog is a noun.
How do you pronounce groundhog?
Groundhog is pronounced /ˈɡɹaʊndhɒɡ/ (UK).
What is the plural of groundhog?
The plural of groundhog is groundhogs.

Words near groundhog in the dictionary

  1. groundframe
  2. groundframes
  3. groundgame
  4. groundgames
  5. groundhandling
  6. groundhog
  7. Groundhog Day
  8. Groundhog Dayed
  9. Groundhog Daying
  10. Groundhog Days
  11. Groundhog Lodge

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: groundhog (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)-Flame, not lame-groundhog.wav.

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