Word.ws English Dictionary

saurian

UK/ˈsɔːɹiən//ˈsɔɹiən/

saurian noun: a reptile of the suborder Sauria.

Noun

saurian (plural saurians)

  1. (properly) A reptile of the suborder Sauria.
    • I took heart, however, as I recalled a conversation between Challenger and Summerlee upon the habits of the great saurians.1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
  2. (especially, popularly) Any large reptilian animal, including crocodiles and reptilian aliens.
    • After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar scenes of a Capronian night--that is, all but von Schoenvorts. There was less to see than to hear. From the great inland lake behind us came the hissing and the screaming of countless saurians. Above us we heard the flap of giant wings...1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
    • Good evening, fellow saurians, and welcome once again to the Tri-Sports Arena! I'm your host, Raz Charkov...1986, Kevin Eastman & al., Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. I, No. 6, page 15
  3. (figuratively) A lizardlike person.
    • He was one of the very few larger saurians in the émigré marshes.1974, Vladimir Nabokov, Look at the Harlequins!, page 130

Adjective

saurian (comparative more saurian, superlative most saurian)

  1. Of or related to the members of the suborder Sauria.
  2. (figuratively) Synonym of lizardlike or reptilian.
    Synonyms:
    lizardlike or reptilian

Synonyms of saurian

  • lizardlike or reptilian

Forms of saurian

Noun
pluralsaurians
Adjective
comparativemore saurian
superlativemost saurian

Origin of saurian

From Sauria (suborder of lizards) + -an (suffix forming adjectives), under influence from earlier French saurien.

Questions about saurian

What does saurian mean?
Saurian means a reptile of the suborder Sauria.
What part of speech is saurian?
Saurian can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce saurian?
Saurian is pronounced /ˈsɔːɹiən/ (UK).
What is the plural of saurian?
The plural of saurian is saurians.

Words near saurian in the dictionary

  1. Saurastras
  2. Saurav
  3. saurel
  4. saurels
  5. Sauria Paharia
  6. saurian
  7. saurians
  8. saurichthyid
  9. saurichthyids
  10. saurichthyiform
  11. saurichthyiforms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saurian (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: en-us-saurian.ogg.

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