Word.ws English Dictionary

Pavlov's dog

Pavlov's dog noun: a person who reacts instinctively to a stimulus, without thought or consideration.

Noun

Pavlov's dog (plural Pavlov's dogs)

  1. (attributive, often) A person who reacts instinctively to a stimulus, without thought or consideration.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:Pavlov's dog.

Forms of Pavlov's dog

pluralPavlov's dogs
alternative formPavlov dog

Origin of Pavlov's dog

In reference to the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov's work on classical conditioning: he discovered that dogs could be conditioned to salivate when a bell was rung, if it had previously been rung whenever food was given.

Questions about Pavlov's dog

What does Pavlov's dog mean?
Pavlov's dog means a person who reacts instinctively to a stimulus, without thought or consideration.
What part of speech is Pavlov's dog?
Pavlov's dog is a noun.
What is the plural of Pavlov's dog?
The plural of Pavlov's dog is Pavlov's dogs.

Words near Pavlov's dog in the dictionary

  1. Pavlov dog
  2. Pavlov dogs
  3. Pavlov pouch
  4. Pavlov pouches
  5. Pavlov'd
  6. Pavlov's dog
  7. Pavlov's dogs
  8. pavlova
  9. pavlovas
  10. Pavloved
  11. pavlovian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Pavlov's dog (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: “Pavlov's dog.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pavlov%27s_dog. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.