hyena
/haɪˈiːnə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.80 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "The udder of the hyena, tied on the left arm, enticed the affection of any desired woman."
- "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."
- "Hyenas are scavengers, which means they eat food left behind by other animals and people."
- "Hyena biologists often think of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) as baboons with big teeth and relatively small brains."
- "This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch."
- "see Citations:hyena"
Etymology
From Middle English hiena, variant of hyene, from Old French hiene, from Medieval Latin hyēna, from Latin hyaena, from Ancient Greek ὕαινα (húaina). Displaced native Old English nihtgenġe (literally “night walker”).