Word.ws English Dictionary

Norway rat

Norway rat noun: the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus).

Noun

Norway rat (plural Norway rats)

  1. The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus).

Synonyms of Norway rat

Forms of Norway rat

pluralNorway rats

Origin of Norway rat

The common name was popularised (and perhaps coined) by English naturalist John Berkenhout, in his Outlines of the Natural History of Great Britain (1769). Berkenhout believed the species migrated to England from Norwegian ships in 1728; he is also responsible for the scientific name.

Questions about Norway rat

What does Norway rat mean?
Norway rat means the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus).
What part of speech is Norway rat?
Norway rat is a noun.
What is the plural of Norway rat?
The plural of Norway rat is Norway rats.

Words near Norway rat in the dictionary

  1. Norway lobsters
  2. Norway maple
  3. Norway maples
  4. Norway pine
  5. Norway pines
  6. Norway rat
  7. Norway rats
  8. Norway saltpetre
  9. Norway spruce
  10. Norway spruces
  11. Norway-plus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Norway rat (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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Cite this entry: “Norway rat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/norway_rat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.