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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hamster.

Any of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhæm(p)stə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈham(p)stə/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈhæm(p)stɚ/US/ˈham(p)stəɾ/Scotland
  1. Any of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae.

    The hamster stuffed his puffy cheeks with food.
  2. Any of various Old World rodent species belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. In particular, a rodent of the species Mesocricetus auratus (the golden hamster) or of a species of the genera Cricetiscus and Phodopus (the dwarf hamsters), often kept as a pet or used in scientific research.

  3. Any of various other rodents of similar appearance, such as the maned hamster or crested hamster, Lophiomys imhausi, mouse-like hamsters of genus Calomyscus, and the white-tailed rat (Mystromys albicaudatus).

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from German Hamster (see for etymology). Displaced earlier term German rat.

verb/ˈhæm(p)stə/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈham(p)stə/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard, Wales/ˈhæm(p)stɚ/US/ˈham(p)stəɾ/Scotland
  1. To secrete or store privately, as a hamster does with food in its cheek pouches.

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from German Hamster (see for etymology). Displaced earlier term German rat.

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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.