hyena.
Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
Meaning & usage
Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.
A man that performs ritualized sex acts with recently widowed women and menarchal girls.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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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.