vulpine
/ˈvʌlpaɪn/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.48 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Pertaining to a fox.
adj
Having the characteristics of a fox; foxlike; cunning.
noun
Any of certain canids called foxes (including true foxes, arctic foxes and grey foxes), distinguished from canines, which are regarded as similar to dogs and wolves.
noun
Example Sentences
- "She dared not raise her eyes above the level of the tea-table, and she almost expected to see a spot of accusing vulpine blood drip down and stain the whiteness of the cloth."
- "Yet such is the vulpine slyness of Dame Nature, that, till now, Tess had been hoodwinked by her love for Clare into forgetting it might result in vitalizations that would inflict upon others what she had bewailed as misfortune to herself."
- "The family Canidae^([sic]) consists of two main subgroups, the vulpines (foxes) and the canines (wolves, coyotes, jackals, and dogs), and some intermediate “fox-dog” forms from South America."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin vulpīnus (“foxy, fox-like”), from vulpēs, earlier volpēs (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European *wl(o)p- (“fox”). Cognate with Welsh llywarn (“fox”), Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ (alṓpēx), Armenian աղուէս (aġuēs), Albanian dhelpër, Lithuanian vilpišỹs (“wildcat”), Sanskrit लोपाश (lopāśa, “jackal, fox”).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: vulpīnus, *wl(o)p-