RHINOCEROS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Rhinoceros

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/raɪnˈɑsərəs/ Listen

noun

Rhinoceros n. (Zool.) Any pachyderm belonging to the genera Rhinoceros, Atelodus, and several allied genera of the family Rhinocerotidae, of which several living, and many extinct, species are known. They are large and powerful, and usually have either one or two stout conical median horns on the snout. Note: The Indian, or white, and the Javan rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros Indicus and Rhinoceros Sondaicus) have incisor and canine teeth, but only one horn, and the very thick skin forms shieldlike folds. The two or three African species belong to Atelodus, and have two horns, but lack the dermal folds, and the incisor and canine teeth. The two Malay, or East Indian, two-horned species belong to Ceratohinus, in which incisor and canine teeth are present. See Borele, and Keitloa.

Rhinoceros auk (Zool.), an auk of the North Pacific (Cerorhina monocrata) which has a deciduous horn on top of the bill.

Rhinoceros beetle (Zool.), a very large beetle of the genus Dynastes, having a horn on the head.

Rhinoceros bird. (Zool.)

(a)

A large hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros), native of the East Indies. It has a large hollow hornlike process on the bill. Called also rhinoceros hornbill. See Hornbill.

(b)

An African beefeater (Buphaga Africana). It alights on the back of the rhinoceros in search of parasitic insects.

See images of 'Rhinoceros'

Etymology of 'Rhinoceros'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Rhinoceros" Quotes from Famous Books

... she heard the mammoths trumpeting as they went down to the drinking-place, and once some huge bulk with heavy paces hurried along, making a noise like a calf, but what it was she could not see. But she thought from the voice it was Yaaa the rhinoceros, who stabs with his nose, goes always ...

— Tales of Space and Time • Herbert George Wells

... issues: air pollution and resulting acid rain in the mineral extraction and refining region; poaching seriously threatens rhinoceros and elephant populations; deforestation; soil erosion; desertification; lack of adequate water treatment presents ...

— The 1997 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... arid desert hills are bones of the ancient rhinoceros, parent of our horse, and there are shells and fossils of fish and bones of animals imbedded ...

— Evening Round Up - More Good Stuff Like Pep • William Crosbie Hunter

... very kind and helpful, taking the command, and insisting that Mr. Egremont should go to bed, and take the dose which he mixed. Broadbent, the butler, was to take Gregorio's place, but he was a ponderous man, without much tact, and unused to the valet's office. 'I might just as well have a rhinoceros about me,' said Mr. Egremont, in a fit of irritation; and it ended, Nuttie hardly knew how, in Mr. Dutton's going upstairs to smooth matters. He came down after a time and said: 'I am not satisfied ...

— Nuttie's Father • Charlotte M. Yonge

... I went in, on my way to visit the rhinoceros family. I rather like snakes, since I had a tame green one, who lived under the door-step, and would come out and play with me on sunny days. These snakes I found very interesting, only they got under ...

— Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag • Louisa M. Alcott

More quotes...