brown bear

noun

|Updated on: 19 Jun 2018

Definition of brown bear

: any of several chiefly brown bears that are usually considered a single species (Ursus arctos), that formerly inhabited western North America from Alaska to northern Mexico and much of Europe and Asia but are now much restricted in range, and that include the grizzly bear and Kodiak bear

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Recent Examples of brown bear from the Web

Simply put, McNeil is the largest seasonal congregation of the largest brown bears on earth.

— christopher solomon, Outside Online, "Op-Ed: Alaska’s Pebble Mine Somehow Just Got Worse," 11 June 2018
What started with a retired animal trainer’s pet brown bear named Jake in the 1920s has become home to more than 200 animals in Michigan City nine decades later.

— jessi virtusio, Post-Tribune, "Washington Park Zoo celebrates milestone of caring and conserving," 8 June 2018
Today, what’s now known as the Katmai National Park and Preserve is a still-active remote landscape teeming with forests, lakes and more than 2,000 brown bear.

— laura kiniry, Smithsonian, "The 20 Best Small Towns To Visit in 2018," 5 June 2018
If you’re ever attacked by a brown bear, the safest thing to do, the NPS says, is to lay flat on your stomach and place your hands over your neck.

— jason duaine hahn, PEOPLE.com, "Man Fights Off Bear With His Bare Hands to Save His Beloved Pet Beagle," 31 May 2018
If you’re ever attacked by a brown bear, the safest thing to do, the NPS says, is to lay flat on your stomach and place your hands over your neck.

— jason duaine hahn, PEOPLE.com, "Man Fights Off Bear With His Bare Hands to Save His Beloved Pet Beagle," 31 May 2018
Twenty-five years ago, brown bear mothers in Sweden rarely spent more than 18 months raising their cubs.

— karen kaplan, latimes.com, "Bear cubs get more motherly love when their moms are protected from hunters," 27 Mar. 2018
Harding and Farber were accompanied by another dancer in a brown bear costume, which was weird, awkward, unexpected and kind of unnecessary.

— andrew joseph, For The Win, "8 key moments from latest DWTS, including Tonya Harding's odd dance with a bear," 8 May 2018
The environment ministry said Thursday that Romania had between 6,050 to 6,640 brown bears in 2016.

— Fox News, "Groups protest Romania's plan to get rid of 2,000 bears," 26 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'brown bear.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.