otter
/ˈɒtə/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈɔtə/
otter noun: an aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae. Also the archaic form of attar.
Noun (1)
otter (countable and uncountable, plural otters or otter)
- An aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae.
- The flesh or fur of this animal
- 'The Aleuts come from a country far to the north,' he said. 'Their ways are not ours nor is their language. They have come to take otter and to give us our share in many goods which they have and which we can use.1960, Scott O'Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Puffin Books, page 11
- The flesh or fur of this animal
- A hairy man with a slender physique, in contrast with a bear, who is more thickset.
Noun (2)
otter (uncountable)
- annatto (dye)
Proper noun capitalized: Otter
Otter
- A river with its source in the Blackdown Hills, Somerset, and which flows through Devon, to Lyme Bay in the English Channel.
Also used as
otter is also the archaic form of attar.
otter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
otter in Hindi
- mammal
- ऊदबिलाव ūdbilāv, ऊद ūd
otter in Tamil
- mammal
- நீர்நாய் nīrnāy
otter in Marathi
- mammal
- पाणमांजर pāṇmāñjar
otter in Urdu
- mammal
- اودبلاؤ ūd-bilā'o
More languagesFewer languages
- otter in Bengali
- ভোঁদড় bhō̃doṛ
- otter in Telugu
- ఉద్రము udramu, నీటి కుక్క nīṭi kukka, నీరుకుక్క nīrukukka, నీరుపిల్లి nīrupilli
- otter in Malayalam
- നീർനായ nīṟnāya
- otter in Kannada
- ಓಟರ್, ಒಟ್ಟರ್
- otter in Punjabi
- ਉਦਰ udar, ਉੱਦਰ uddar, اُدْر udr
- otter in Gujarati
- ઓટર
- otter in Odia
- ଓଧ odha
- otter in Sanskrit
- उद्र udra
- otter in Assamese
- উদ ud
- otter in Nepali
- उद्र udra, ओत ot
- otter in Pashto
- اوبسپی
- otter in Tagalog
- dungon
- otter in Arabic
- قُضَاعَة quḍāʕa, ثَعْلَب الْمَاء ṯaʕlab al-māʔ
- otter in Malay
- anjing air, berang-berang, memerang
- otter in Indonesian
- berang-berang
- otter in Persian
- سمور آبی samur-e âbi
- otter in Thai
- นาก nâak
- otter in Vietnamese
- rái cá, rái
- otter in Myanmar
- ဖျံ hpyam
- Kashmiri
- وۄدُر vọdur
- Dzongkha
- སྲམ sram
Examples of otter in a sentence
- Figure 1 shows a photograph of an otter spraint.
- The tour promised spiritual experiences with humpback whales and other cetaceans, but all we saw were seagulls and a dead sea otter.
- In a humanfree world, crabs would still be pulled apart limb by limb by otters.
Forms of otter
| plural | otters |
|---|---|
| plural | otter |
Origin of otter
From Middle English oter, otir, otur, otyre, from Old English otor, from Proto-West Germanic *otr, from Proto-Germanic *utraz, from Proto-Indo-European *udrós (“aquatic, water-animal”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“water”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Otter, Dutch otter, German Otter, Swedish utter, Norwegian oter, Icelandic otur, Sanskrit उद्र (udrá), Russian вы́дра (výdra), and Ancient Greek ὕδρα (húdra, “water snake”). Doublet of Hydra and hydra. More etymology under English water.
Corruption of annotto.
Words formed from otter
- bear otter
- European otter
- giant otter
- King Otter
- marine otter
- Maxwell's otter
- otter board
- otter civet
- Otter Creek
- Otterhound
- ottering
- otterish
- otterless
- otterlike
- otterly
- ottermode
- otter shell
- otter shrew
- otterskin
- Otter Tail County
- otter trawler
- otter trawling
- ottery
- river otter
- sea otter
- snot otter
Phrases with otter
Words that rhyme with otter
Questions about otter
- What does otter mean?
- Otter means an aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae.
- What is otter in Hindi?
- Otter in Hindi is ऊदबिलाव (ūdbilāv), ऊद (ūd). See Otter meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is otter?
- Otter can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce otter?
- Otter is pronounced /ˈɒtə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of otter?
- The plural of otter is otters.
Words near otter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: otter (page history and authors); Otter (page history and authors); otter (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); otter (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-otter.wav.
Cite this entry: “otter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/otter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.