echidna

noun

echid·​na i-ˈkid-nə 

: a spiny-coated toothless burrowing nocturnal monotreme mammal (Tachyglossus aculeatus) of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that has a long extensible tongue and long heavy claws and that feeds chiefly on ants

also : several related mammals (genus Zaglossus) of New Guinea having a longer snout and shorter spines

Illustration of echidna

Did you know?

There are two species of echidna. Both are egg-laying mammals that are stocky and virtually tailless. They have strong-clawed feet and spines on the upper part of a brownish body. The snout is narrow and the mouth is small, with a tongue that is long and sticky for feeding on termites and ants, their chief food. New Guinea echidnas are 18–31 in (45–78 cm) long and piglike. Valued for their meat, they are declining in numbers. Echidnas of Australia and Tasmania are 14–21 in (35–53 cm) long. Echidnas exude milk from mammary openings on the skin, and the young lap it up.

Examples of echidna in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

However, evidence of the echidna's existence was found throughout the region in recent decades. —Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 12 June 2025

Some of the fossil’s features suggest monotremes might have evolved from living in the water to land — and could explain the bizarre, backward feet echidnas have today. —Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 4 May 2025

While the amphibious platypus spends much of its time in water, the echidna—also known as the spiny anteater—makes its home on land. —Margherita Bassi, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, genus name, going back to Latin, "snake, viper (as an attribute of the Furies)," borrowed from Greek échidna "viper, creature of myth combining the bodies of a woman and a snake," of uncertain origin

Note: The name Echidna was first used without a formal description by Georges cuvier in Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux (Paris: An 6 [1798]), p. 143: "Fourmiliers épineux (echidna) : à corps ouverts de piquans. On n'en connoît q'une espèce, qui est de la Nouvelle-Hollande, et a les pieds et la queue excessivement courts." ("Spiny anteaters (echidna): with a body covered in spines. Only one species is known, which is from New Holland [Australia], the feet and tail of which are extremely short.") As Echidna had been used earlier (1788) for a genus of fish, it was replaced in taxonomy by the genus name Tachyglossus in 1811. — Greek échidna has usually been taken to be a derivative of échis "viper," by derivation with the suffix -ja from a presumed adjective *echidnós "of a viper," from échis "viper," an i-stem. R. Beekes, however, regards -dna as a typical pre-Greek suffix and thus assigns échidna to a pre-Greek non-Indo-European substratum (Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009).

First Known Use

1832, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for echidna

• didna

Kids Definition

echidna

noun

echid·​na i-ˈkid-nə 

: a spiny-coated toothless burrowing egg-laying mammal of Australia with a tapering snout and long tongue for eating ants

called also spiny anteater