hyena
/haɪˈiːnə/
hyena noun: any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
Noun
hyena (plural hyenas or hyena or hyenae)
- Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
- The udder of the hyena, tied on the left arm, enticed the affection of any desired woman.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 60
- I took no systematic data on the costs to cheetahs and hyenas, but some anecdotes suggest that both parties took numerical advantage and hunger into account.1994, T. M. Caro, Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: Group Living in an Asocial Species, page 283
- A man that performs ritualized sex acts with recently widowed women and menarchal girls.
- see Citations:hyena
hyena meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hyena in Hindi
- mammal
- लकड़बग्घा lakaṛbagghā, तरच्छ taracch
hyena in Tamil
- mammal
- கழுதைப்புலி kaḻutaippuli
hyena in Marathi
- mammal
- तरस taras
hyena in Urdu
- mammal
- لکر بگھا lakaṛ bagghā
More languagesFewer languages
- hyena in Bengali
- হায়েনা haẏena
- hyena in Telugu
- దుమ్ములగొండి dummulagoṇḍi
- hyena in Malayalam
- കഴുതപ്പുലി kaḻutappuli
- hyena in Kannada
- ಕತ್ತೆಕಿರುಬ kattekiruba
- hyena in Sanskrit
- तरक्षु tarakṣu
- hyena in Pashto
- اښوپړانګ ax̌opṛãng, کوږ koẓ, کوږبل koẓbǝ́l
- hyena in Tagalog
- yena
- hyena in Arabic
- ضَبُع ḍabuʕ, ضِبْعَان ḍibʕān, ذِيخ ḏīḵ
- hyena in Malay
- dubuk, hiena
- hyena in Indonesian
- dubuk
- hyena in Persian
- کفتار kaftâr
- hyena in Thai
- หมาใน mǎa-nai, ไฮยีน่า hai-yii-nâa
- hyena in Vietnamese
- linh cẩu
- hyena in Myanmar
- ဟိုင်းအီနာ huing:ina
Examples of hyena in a sentence
- Hyenas are scavengers, which means they eat food left behind by other animals and people.2002, Maskew Miller Longman, Find Out about African Animals, page 28:
- Hyena biologists often think of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) as baboons with big teeth and relatively small brains.2003, Anne Engh, Kay E. Holekamp, “Case Study 5A: Maternal Rank "Inheritance" in the Spotted Hyena”, in Frans B. M. De Waal, Peter L Tyack...
- This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch.2022 June 12, Katie Hunt, “How zoology got female animals all wrong”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2022:
Synonyms of hyena
Forms of hyena
| plural | hyenas |
|---|---|
| plural | hyena |
| plural | hyenae |
| alternative form (dated) | hyaena |
| alternative form (dated) | hyæna |
| alternative form (obsolete) | hyen |
Origin of hyena
From Middle English hiena, variant of hyene, from Old French hiene, from Medieval Latin hyēna, from Latin hyaena, from Ancient Greek ὕαινα (húaina). Displaced native Old English nihtgenġe (literally “night walker”).
Words formed from hyena
- brown hyena
- cave hyena
- giant hyena
- hyena deer
- hyena dog
- hyenalike
- hyenic
- hyenine
- hyenoid
- hyote
- laughing hyena
- laugh like a hyena
- running hyena
- spotted hyena
- striped hyena Hyaena hyaena
- werehyena
Phrases with hyena
Questions about hyena
- What does hyena mean?
- Hyena means any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
- What is hyena in Hindi?
- Hyena in Hindi is लकड़बग्घा (lakaṛbagghā), तरच्छ (taracch). See Hyena meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use hyena in a sentence?
- Hyenas are scavengers, which means they eat food left behind by other animals and people.
- What part of speech is hyena?
- Hyena is a noun.
- How do you pronounce hyena?
- Hyena is pronounced /haɪˈiːnə/.
- What is the plural of hyena?
- The plural of hyena is hyenas.
Words near hyena in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hyena (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: en-us-hyena.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hyena.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hyena. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.