Word.ws English Dictionary

sandgroper

sandgroper noun: an inhabitant of Western Australia.

sandgroper: an inhabitant of Western Australia
Image: GlenDillon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sandgroper (plural sandgropers)

  1. (Australia, humorous) An inhabitant of Western Australia.
    • On both occasions the sandgropers downed the ‘big V’, as indeed they did in 1947 at Hobart when finishing second; the VFL′s only other defeat in 68 pre-state of origin carnival games came in 1911 against South Australia in Adelaide.2008, John Devaney, Full Points Footy′s WA Football Companion, page 320
    • Leonard not only accepted, he told the club he could help sign several West Australians. The Foreign Legion policy was born and, through Leonard′s personal contacts, South [Melbourne] signed Sandgropers Brighton Diggins and Bill Faul (both from Subiaco) and Gilbert Beard (South Fremantle).2011, Ashley Browne, editor, The Grand Finals: 1897-1938, volume 1, page 370
  2. Any species of the family Cylindrachetidae of subterranean insects, found in Australia, New Guinea and Argentina.
    • The sandgroper is not unique to Western Australia, being found elsewhere in Australia and also in New Guinea,[…].1980, Western Australian Department of Agriculture, Journal, page 53
    • Most species are small, 4 to 15 mm in length, although some sandgropers (Cylindrachetidae) can reach the length of 40 mm.2001, Simon A. Levin, Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, page 264

Forms of sandgroper

pluralsandgropers

Origin of sandgroper

From sand + groper. The sense “Western Australian” may originate either as a reference to the relatively large proportion of desert in the state or to gold mining during the rushes of the 19th Century.

Questions about sandgroper

What does sandgroper mean?
Sandgroper means an inhabitant of Western Australia.
What part of speech is sandgroper?
Sandgroper is a noun.
What is the plural of sandgroper?
The plural of sandgroper is sandgropers.

Words near sandgroper in the dictionary

  1. Sandgate
  2. sandglass
  3. sandglasses
  4. Sandgren
  5. Sandgrens
  6. sandgroper
  7. sandgropers
  8. sandgrounder
  9. sandgrounders
  10. sandgrouse
  11. sandgrouses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sandgroper (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sandgroper.wav.

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