Word.ws English Dictionary

ichneumon

/ɪkˈnjuːmən/

ichneumon noun: an Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), found in Africa and southern Europe.

Noun

ichneumon (plural ichneumons)

  1. An Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), found in Africa and southern Europe.
    • when the Ichneumon is to grapple with the Crocodile, he walloweth his body in the mire, then lets the same drie and harden upon him[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    nems
  2. An ichneumon wasp.
    • Ada's unique Lorelei Underwing had died, paralyzed by some ichneumon that had not been deceived by those clever prominences and fungoid smudges.1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 43
  3. a legendary animal, which kills crocodiles and dragons

ichneumon meaning in Bengali, Telugu and Sanskrit

ichneumon in Bengali

নকুল, বেজি

ichneumon in Telugu

Herpestes ichneumon
ముంగిస muṅgisa

ichneumon in Sanskrit

Herpestes ichneumon
नकुल nakula

Synonyms of ichneumon

Forms of ichneumon

pluralichneumons

Origin of ichneumon

Learned borrowing from Latin ichneumōn, from Ancient Greek ἰχνεύμων (ikhneúmōn, “tracker”), from ἴχνος (íkhnos, “track, footstep”).

Words formed from ichneumon

Phrases with ichneumon

Questions about ichneumon

What does ichneumon mean?
Ichneumon means an Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), found in Africa and southern Europe.
What is ichneumon in Bengali?
Ichneumon in Bengali is নকুল, বেজি. See Ichneumon meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is ichneumon?
Ichneumon is a noun.
How do you pronounce ichneumon?
Ichneumon is pronounced /ɪkˈnjuːmən/.
What is the plural of ichneumon?
The plural of ichneumon is ichneumons.

Words near ichneumon in the dictionary

  1. Ichkerian
  2. Ichkerians
  3. ichn-
  4. ichneumia
  5. ichneumias
  6. ichneumon
  7. ichneumon flies
  8. ichneumon fly
  9. ichneumon wasp
  10. ichneumon wasps
  11. ichneumoned

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ichneumon (page history and authors); ichneumon (Bengali Wiktionary) (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-ichneumon.wav.

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