unicorn
UK/ˈjuː.nɪ.kɔːn/US/ˈju.nɪ.kɔɹn/
unicorn noun: a mythical, horselike creature with a horn on its forehead, supposed to be extremely rare and to be drawn to virgins and other chaste maidens.
Noun
unicorn (plural unicorns)
- A mythical, horselike creature with a horn on its forehead, supposed to be extremely rare and to be drawn to virgins and other chaste maidens.
- [Seb.] A liuing Drolerie: now I will beleeue / That there are Vnicornes:[…]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
- The unicorn who may be touched and tamed only by a chaste virgin is a lunar symbol of the ancient religion of Europe.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 106
- Synonyms:
- monoceros
- In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.
- God brought him forth out of Egypt, he hath as it were the ſtrength of an Vnicorne: he ſhall eate vp the nations his enemies, and ſhall breake their bones, and pierce them thorow with his arrowes.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 24:8, column 1
- Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax, especially the Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus.
- A caterpillar, Schizura unicornis, with a large thorn-like spine on the back near its head.
- The kamichi, or unicorn bird.
- A Siberian unicorn, †Elasmotherium sibiricum.
- An Asian unicorn, or saola, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis.
- A howitzer.
- The Sixth Inniskilling Dragoons and the First Battalion Royal Scots will be in attendance, and there will be unicorns, carricks, pursuivants, heralds, mace-bearers, ushers, and pages, together with the Purse-bearer, and the Lyon King-of-Arms, and the national anthem, and the royal salute1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 8, in Penelope’s Progress […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC
- Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
- On Capitol Hill, Mr. Manchin is something of a unicorn — the only national Democrat from his ruby-red state — and acts and votes accordingly.2022 July 15, Emily Cochrane, “Manchin Dangles Hopes of a Future Compromise. Democrats Revolt.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- A single, usually bisexual woman who participates in swinging or polyamory.
- A person with multidisciplinary expertise, especially a laundry list of three or more skills in a young field such as UX design or data science (e.g., domain knowledge, statistics, and software engineering).
- But I also think, “They’re looking for a unicorn — a magical designer who can solve all their problems.” It’s too bad unicorns don’t exist. … I have never met a designer who is an expert in all those skill areas. … Even if you find a unicorn designer with all those skills, actually doing all those...2011 November 1, Braden Kowitz, “Hiring a designer: hunting the unicorn”, in Google Ventures, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2019
- He believes that good data scientists, “otherwise known as unicorn data scientists,” have three types of expertise.2015 October 3, Gil Press, “These Are The Skills You Need To (Eventually) Become A $240,000+ Unicorn Data Scientist”, in Forbes
- A startup company whose valuation has exceeded one billion U.S. dollars, which is solely backed by venture capitalists, and which has yet to have an IPO.
- As the price of Web hosting plummeted and PCs and cell phones proliferated, college and grad-school dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page and Sergey Brin could suddenly conjure unicorns on their laptops.2016 October 3, Tad Friend, “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny”, in The New Yorker
- In May 2016, out of 163 global unicorns, China had 31, with a total valuation of $154 billion or about 26 percent of global unicorn valuation.2017, Pongsak Hoontrakul, Economic Transformation and Business Opportunities in Asia, Springer, →ISBN, page 273
- A fan with serious aspirations to become romantically involved with a VTuber (i.e., the streamer behind the avatar).
- Being many (especially pastel) colours; multicoloured.
- unicorn smoothies
- A 15th-century Scottish gold coin worth 18 shillings, bearing the image of a unicorn.
Verb
unicorn (third-person singular simple present unicorns, present participle unicorning, simple past and past participle unicorned)
- To participate in a sexual threesome as a bisexual addition to an established heterosexual couple.
- Katja*, 27, has unicorned on two separate occasions.2017 January 13, E.J. Dickson, “This is why you haven't had a threesome yet”, in New York Post
- “In Annie’s unicorning, she’s really able to try out other people’s relationships and see how they function from within,” Gillespie tells me.2017 September 16, Anna Fitzpatrick, “'The Ethical Slut': Inside America's Growing Acceptance of Polyamory”, in Rolling Stone
- To exceed a valuation of one billion U.S. dollars, while solely backed by venture capitalists.
- Since Waze, Soluto and Onavo, both Israeli startups, have had great exits in consumer tech, and Wix “unicorned” through its IPO.2014 November 3, Itay Hod, “The Airbnb of Home-Cooked Meals”, in Daily Beast
- For eager investors looking to score in a future IPO, the eight still-private martech unicorns might be tempting. That list includes Domo, Slack, Sprinklr, Shopify, and EventBrite, all of which have “unicorned,” or surpassed the billion-dollar valuation mark, in the past year or two.2015 April 30, John Koetsier, “29 martech unicorns: There are now almost 30 $1B+ marketing technology vendors”, in Venture Beat
Adjective
unicorn (not comparable)
- Having one horn.
- Rare and hard to find.
unicorn meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
unicorn in Hindi
- mythical horselike creature
- इकसिंगा iksiṅgā
unicorn in Tamil
- mythical horselike creature
- கொம்புக் குதிரை kompuk kutirai
unicorn in Marathi
- mythical horselike creature
- युनिकॉर्न yunikŏrna
unicorn in Urdu
- mythical horselike creature
- ارنا گھوڑا
More languagesFewer languages
- unicorn in Bengali
- ইউনিকর্ন
- unicorn in Telugu
- యునికార్న్, యూనికార్న్, యూనీకార్న్
- unicorn in Malayalam
- യൂണികോൺ, യൂണിക്കോൺ
- unicorn in Kannada
- ಕೊಂಬು ಕುದುರೆ, ಕೋಡು ಕುದುರೆ
- unicorn in Punjabi
- ਯੂਨੀਕੋਰਨ, ਯੂਨੀਕਾਰਨ, ਯੂਨਿਕੋਰਨ
- unicorn in Gujarati
- યુનિકોર્ન, યુનિકૉર્ન, યુનિકોરન
- unicorn in Odia
- ଯ଼ୁନିକର୍ଣ୍ଣ, ଯ଼ୁନିକର୍ନ୍, ଯ଼ୁନିକର୍ନ
- unicorn in Nepali
- युनिकोर्न, युनिकर्न, युनिकॉर्न
- unicorn in Tagalog
- unikornyo
- unicorn in Arabic
- أُحَادِيُّ القَرْن ʔuḥādiyyu l-qarn, حَرِيش ḥarīš, يُونِيكُورْن yūnīkūrn
- unicorn in Malay
- kuda sumbu, rusa senggerek, unikorn
- unicorn in Indonesian
- unikorn, kuda bertanduk
- unicorn in Persian
- تکشاخ tek shâkh
- unicorn in Thai
- ยูนิคอร์น yuu-ní-kɔɔn
- unicorn in Vietnamese
- kì lân
Examples of unicorn in a sentence
- “Everyone wants the party, but nobody likes to plan,” explains Vixen Vu, a cam model who has been unicorning since she became sexually active.2018 August 14, Allison Tierney, How to Be a Great Third in a Threesome:
- Also, Dan speaks with a bisexual man, whose first attempt at unicorning (yes, we verbed the word "unicorn,") went poorly, mainly due to his straight couple maybe getting a little too drunky?2019 September 10, “New Savage Lovecast: Dental Dams Spoiler Alert! (Nobody Uses Them.)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal...
- For instance, at the same time as Intercom was announcing its unicorning moment, a young Dublin tech company called Let's Get Checked (letsgetchecked.com) raised €10m in a funding round.2018 April 1, Adrian Weckler, “Admit it: Irish tech is on the up”, in The Independent:
Synonyms of unicorn
Forms of unicorn
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | unicorns |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | unicorns |
| present participle | unicorning |
| past participle | unicorned |
| past | unicorned |
Origin of unicorn
From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, (from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”)), a calque of Ancient Greek μονόκερως (monókerōs, “having one horn”, (from μόνος (mónos, “one”) + κέρας (kéras, “horn”))). Displaced native Old English ānhorn, itself a calque of the Latin term. First attested in the early 13th c. * Other senses from either rarity (e.g., possessing multiple skills) or by physical resemblance to having a horn (e.g., howitzer). The finance sense was coined by American investor Aileen Lee and first used in a 2013 article.
Words formed from unicorn
- African unicorn
- Asian unicorn
- aunicornist
- bunnicorn
- bunnycorn
- caticorn
- Chinese unicorn
- half-unicorn
- Invisible Pink Unicorn
- pegacorn
- rainbows and unicorns
- rainbow unicorns
- sea unicorn
- Siberian unicorn
- unicornback
- unicorn bait
- unicorn barf
- unicorn beast
- unicornfish
- unicorn hunter
- unicorn hunting
- unicornic
- unicornlike
- unicorn plant
- unicorn puke
- unicorn root
- unicorn vomit
- unicorny
- unihorn
- unicornity
Phrases with unicorn
Questions about unicorn
- What does unicorn mean?
- Unicorn means a mythical, horselike creature with a horn on its forehead, supposed to be extremely rare and to be drawn to virgins and other chaste maidens.
- What is unicorn in Hindi?
- Unicorn in Hindi is इकसिंगा (iksiṅgā). See Unicorn meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use unicorn in a sentence?
- “Everyone wants the party, but nobody likes to plan,” explains Vixen Vu, a cam model who has been unicorning since she became sexually active.
- What part of speech is unicorn?
- Unicorn can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce unicorn?
- Unicorn is pronounced /ˈjuː.nɪ.kɔːn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of unicorn?
- The plural of unicorn is unicorns.
Words near unicorn in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unicorn (page history and authors); unicorn (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unicorn (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); unicorn (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-au-unicorn.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unicorn.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unicorn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.