Word.ws English Dictionary

ichneumons

ichneumons is the plural of ichneumon.

Meaning of ichneumon

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

Questions about ichneumons

What is ichneumons the plural of?
Ichneumons is the plural of ichneumon.

Words near ichneumons in the dictionary

  1. ichneumonoid
  2. ichneumonoids
  3. ichneumonologist
  4. ichneumonologists
  5. ichneumonology
  6. ichneumons
  7. ichneumous
  8. Ichnia
  9. ichnite
  10. ichnites
  11. ichno-

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ichneumons (page history and authors); ichneumon (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.

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