Word
dinosaur
Phoneticsdi·nosaur
US/ˈdaɪnəˌsɔɹ/
UK/dˈaɪnəsˌɔː/
Definitions
01extinct animal
n. a type of animal that lived millions of years ago and is now extinct.
n. any of the diverse group of reptiles within the clade Dinosauria that were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates from the Triassic to the Cretaceous.
“The children were excited to see the huge dinosaur skeletons at the museum.”
“Paleontologists continue to debate whether certain dinosaur species were endothermic or if their metabolic rates shifted with environmental temperatures.”
Synonyms
02old-fashioned person or thing
n. someone or something that is very old, out of date, or refuses to change.
n. a person, organisation, or technology regarded as obsolete or stubbornly resistant to modern progress.
“My grandfather calls himself a dinosaur because he refuses to use a smartphone.”
“The company was once a market leader, but it has become a corporate dinosaur, unable to compete with more agile tech startups.”
Informal · Humorous
Usage
Often used as a mild insult or a self-deprecating joke about being behind the times.
Etymology
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Idioms
go the way of the dinosaurs — To go extinct or become obsolete; to fall out of common use or practice; to become a thing of the past.
The word in film
Dinosaur · 2000 · Adventure
- Directed by:
- Eric Leighton
This animated adventure directed by Eric Leighton follows an Iguanodon who is raised by a family of lemurs. The story focuses on his difficult journey to find a safe home after a meteor hits the Earth and threatens the survival of his species.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/dinosaur