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xenarthran

/zəˈnɑɹθɹən/

xenarthran noun: any mammal of the superorder Xenarthra, of the Americas; an anteater, armadillo or sloth.

xenarthran: any mammal of the superorder Xenarthra, of the Americas; an anteater, armadillo or sloth
Image: Ltshears, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

xenarthran (plural xenarthrans)

  1. Any mammal of the superorder Xenarthra, of the Americas; an anteater, armadillo or sloth.
    • Elephant-shrews, xenarthrans, hystricognathous rodents, cetaceans, some pinnipeds, and primates depart sharply from this trend, however.1978, Terry A. Vaughan, James M. Ryan, Nicholas J. Czaplewski, Mammalogy, page 355
    • Xenarthrans appear to have originated in South America and to have undergone their major adaptive radiation there (Reig 1981).2000, John F. Eisenberg, Kent H. Redford, Mammals of the Neotropics, volume 3, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, page 90

Forms of xenarthran

pluralxenarthrans

Origin of xenarthran

From Ancient Greek ξένος (xénos, “strange”) + ἄρθρον (árthron, “joint”).

Words formed from xenarthran

Questions about xenarthran

What does xenarthran mean?
Xenarthran means any mammal of the superorder Xenarthra, of the Americas; an anteater, armadillo or sloth.
What part of speech is xenarthran?
Xenarthran is a noun.
How do you pronounce xenarthran?
Xenarthran is pronounced /zəˈnɑɹθɹən/.
What is the plural of xenarthran?
The plural of xenarthran is xenarthrans.

Words near xenarthran in the dictionary

  1. xenalipin
  2. xenan
  3. Xenaphile
  4. Xenaphiles
  5. xenarthral
  6. xenarthran
  7. xenarthrans
  8. xenarthrous
  9. Xenas
  10. xenate
  11. xenates

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: xenarthran (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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