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dinosaur.

Those animals of the clade Dinosauria that existed during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are now extinct.

8 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈdaɪnəsɔː(ɹ)/UK/ˈdaɪnəsoɹ/US/ˈdʌɪnəsɔːɹ/
  1. Those animals of the clade Dinosauria that existed during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are now extinct.

    usually
    Despite what some cartoons portray, no humans were around when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
  2. Any of the animals belonging to the clade Dinosauria, including its sole surviving lineage: Neornithes.

    Many people love their backyard birds, but some of us may not realize that those feathery friends are also literally dinosaurs, in a biologically accurate sense of that word.
  3. Any extinct reptile, not necessarily belonging to Dinosauria, that existed between about 230 million and 65 million years ago, as well as the stem-mammal Dimetrodon.

    broadly · informal · proscribed
    Pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs — I don't know, they're all dinosaurs to me!
  4. Someone or something that is very old or old-fashioned, especially someone who is not willing to change and adapt.

    colloquial · figuratively
    She may be a tough old bird, but it's a mistake to write her off as a dinosaur; you do so at your own risk.
  5. Anything no longer in common use or practice.

    colloquial · figuratively
    I couldn't believe it when I saw the equipment that they were still using. Those machines were all dinosaurs, but they were busily cranking out production.
Where this word comes from

From Ancient Greek δεινός (deinós, “terrible, awesome, mighty, fearfully great”) + σαῦρος (saûros, “lizard, reptile”). Coined as Dinosaur(s) and Dinosauria by paleontologist Richard Owen in 1841/1842.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.