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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

squirrel.

Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskwɝ(ə)l/Canada, US/ˈskwɪ.ɾ(ə)l/Scotland, Wales/ˈskwʌ.ɹəl/New-York-City
  1. Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae.

    tree squirrels
    ground squirrels
  2. Any of the rodents of the family Sciuridae. Any of those distinguished typically by a large bushy tail; any of the tree squirrels of subfamily Sciurinae or phenotypically similar sciurids.

    especially
  3. Someone who displays squirrel-like qualities such as stealing or hoarding objects.

    figuratively
  4. One of the small rollers of a carding machine which work with the large cylinder.

  5. A person, usually a freezoner, who applies L. Ron Hubbard's technology in a heterodox manner.

    derogatory · often
Where this word comes from

From Middle English squirel, squyrelle, from Anglo-Norman esquirel and Old French escurel (whence French écureuil), from Vulgar Latin *scūriolus, diminutive of *scūrius, variant of Latin sciūrus, from Ancient Greek σκίουρος (skíouros, “shadow-tail”, from σκιά (skiá, “shadow”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”)). Displaced native Middle English acquerne, aquerne, from Old English ācweorna. See dialectical English con and puristic English oakwern.

verb/ˈskwɪ.ɹ(ə)l/Australia, Received-Pronunciation/ˈskwɝ(ə)l/Canada, US/ˈskwɪ.ɾ(ə)l/Scotland, Wales/ˈskwʌ.ɹəl/New-York-City
  1. To store in a secretive manner, to hide something for future use.

    figuratively · transitive
  2. To become distracted.

    figuratively · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English squirel, squyrelle, from Anglo-Norman esquirel and Old French escurel (whence French écureuil), from Vulgar Latin *scūriolus, diminutive of *scūrius, variant of Latin sciūrus, from Ancient Greek σκίουρος (skíouros, “shadow-tail”, from σκιά (skiá, “shadow”) + οὐρά (ourá, “tail”)). Displaced native Middle English acquerne, aquerne, from Old English ācweorna. See dialectical English con and puristic English oakwern.

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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.