Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use hyena in a sentence

23 example sentences · noun

Hyena means any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited. Example: “The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.”

Examples of hyena by meaning

nounAny of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for...

  • The udder of the hyena, tied on the left arm, enticed the affection of any desired woman.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 60
  • I took no systematic data on the costs to cheetahs and hyenas, but some anecdotes suggest that both parties took numerical advantage and hunger into account.1994, T. M. Caro, Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: Group Living in an Asocial Species, page 283
  • Hyenas are scavengers, which means they eat food left behind by other animals and people.2002, Maskew Miller Longman, Find Out about African Animals, page 28

More sentences with hyena

  • The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.From the entry roar
  • A cackle of hyenas might take on one male lion, but two is one too many.2021, Brent Henderson, The Roar Within: Unleashing the Powerful Truth of Who You Really Are, Baker Publishing Group. From the entry cackle
  • The cave hyena was widespread and abundant in Europe and north Asia, ranging from Spain to Siberia.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 203. From the entry cave hyena
  • Scimitar cats had a sloping back like a spotted hyena and were probably excellent runners.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 107. From the entry scimitar cat
  • We're a lion sitting under the tree, watching the hyenas as they stalk our territory.2015, Jeremy Gutsche, Better and Faster: The Proven Path to Unstoppable Ideas, Crown, →ISBN, page 15. From the entry stand up
  • We are also extracting DNA, both from blood collected during immobilizations and from hyena feces.2011 June 21, Kay E. Holekamp, “Why Study Hyenas?”, in The New York Times. From the entry feces
  • In particular, porcupines, hyenas, and leopards are known in Africa to transport bones to particular places.2010, Richard Potts, Early Hominid Activities at Olduvai, page 81. From the entry porcupine
  • The gentle scratching felt good, so the hyena leaned into the paw.2007, Teiran, The Hero, page 150. From the entry murr
  • A cackle of hyenas had her surrounded, enticed by the smell of her just-given birth.2004, Gregory Townes, The Tribe, Black Print Pub., page 6. From the entry cackle
  • The siafus, together with the hyena, jackal and vulture, are the great scavengers of Kenya.1957, William W. Baldwin, Mau Mau Man-hunt, page 216. From the entry siafu
  • In my inspiration folder I have quite some pictures of hyenas I wanna redraw with my sona or my friend's hyenasonas.2019 April 22, @FuchsFluch, Twitter. From the entry hyenasona
  • The brown hyena has evolved to live in desert systems throughout southern Africa, where it occurs at low densities.2014, Chris McIntyre, Botswana Safari Guide: Okavango Delta, Chobe, Northern Kalahari, 4th edition, Bradt Travel Guides, page 428. From the entry brown hyena
  • Two series of moments, far apart yet with commonalities, involve experiences of eye-lock with a girlfriend and a hyena.2014, Michael Eigen, Faith, page xv. From the entry eye-lock
  • He giggled with that obnoxious hyena laugh he has.2006, M Apostolina, Dark Cindy. From the entry spank you very much
  • Because they are scavengers in a semiarid ecosystem where carrion is often limited, brown hyenas naturally occur in small numbers.1984, Mark Owens, Delia Owens, Cry of the Kalahari, page 324. From the entry brown hyena
  • The American Hyena, also called the Running Hyena, shared more physical characteristics with wolves and dogs than with most other hyena species.2016 February 17, Ted Rechlin, Prehistoric Beasts of the Ice Age, Courier Dover Publications, →ISBN. From the entry running hyena
  • The hyena let out a soft murr as the fox's paw gently rubbing in small circles across his forehead and down his neck.2007, Teiran, The Hero, page 150. From the entry murr
  • And I saw werewolves, centaurs, tigers, leopards, hyenas, camelopards or giraffes, and oryges, a variety of Egyptian unicorn with certain features of the antelope.1936, The Complete Works of Doctor François Rabelais, translation of original by François Rabelais, page 797. From the entry oryges
  • "Laughter," reproved Najib, cut to the soul by his chief's ridicule, "laughter is for hyenas — and for women! as I have besaid of often.1925, Albert Payson Terhune, Najib. From the entry besay
  • We were all facing the door as we waited for the opposing counsel to come in, like a pride of hyenas about to ambush a wounded water buffalo.2020, Carl Weber, Influence, Kensington, page 7. From the entry pride

Meaning of hyena

  1. noun Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
  2. noun A man that performs ritualized sex acts with recently widowed women and menarchal girls.

Full definition of hyena

Questions about hyena in a sentence

How do you use hyena in a sentence?
Hyena is used as a noun. For example: “The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.”
What is a short sentence with hyena?
“The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.”
What does hyena mean?
Hyena means any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hyena (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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