Word.ws English Dictionary

pachyderm

/ˈpæk.ɪˌdɜː(ɹ)m/

pachyderm noun: a member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant and tapir.

pachyderm: a member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals...
Image: N.A.Nazeer, CC BY-SA 2.5 in, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

pachyderm (plural pachyderms)

  1. (obsolete) A member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant and tapir.
  2. (informal) An elephant.
    • And so it happened that before the elephant realized that his new enemy had leaped from his path Tarzan had driven his iron-shod spear from behind the massive shoulder straight into the fierce heart, and the colossal pachyderm had toppled to his death at the feet of the ape-man.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 132
    • Among five score pachyderm / Each canopied and passengered / Sit the duke and the duchess' luscious young girls2005, The Decemberists, “The Infanta”, in Picaresque
  3. (figuratively) A person with thick skin; someone who is not affected by or does not care what others say about them.
  4. (figuratively) Someone who is insensitive.

pachyderm meaning in Tamil

pachyderm in Tamil

தடிமத்தோலி, தடித்த தோலுள்ள விலங்கு

Forms of pachyderm

pluralpachyderms

Origin of pachyderm

Borrowed from French pachyderme, equivalent to pachy- (“thick”) + -derm (“skin”).

Words formed from pachyderm

Questions about pachyderm

What does pachyderm mean?
Pachyderm means a member of the obsolete taxonomic order Pachydermata, grouping of thick-skinned, hoofed animals such as the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, elephant and tapir.
What is pachyderm in Tamil?
Pachyderm in Tamil is தடிமத்தோலி, தடித்த தோலுள்ள விலங்கு. See Pachyderm meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is pachyderm?
Pachyderm is a noun.
How do you pronounce pachyderm?
Pachyderm is pronounced /ˈpæk.ɪˌdɜː(ɹ)m/ (UK).
What is the plural of pachyderm?
The plural of pachyderm is pachyderms.

Words near pachyderm in the dictionary

  1. pachycormiforms
  2. pachycurare
  3. pachycurares
  4. pachydactylous
  5. pachydactyly
  6. pachyderm
  7. pachyderma
  8. pachydermal
  9. pachydermatocele
  10. pachydermatoceles
  11. pachydermatous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pachyderm (page history and authors); pachyderm (Tamil 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-pachyderm.wav.

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