cannibal

noun

can·​ni·​bal ˈka-nə-bəl 

: one that eats the flesh of its own kind

Examples of cannibal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Lexx certainly wasn't short on levity, with gags ranging from the satirical (a former intergalactic cannibal becoming the Pope) to the reassuringly low-brow (the Lexx's insectoid food pipes spattering a mysterious fluid onto Stan's plate). —Chris McMullen, Space.com, 2 Aug. 2025

Black people are depicted as rapists and cannibals, Jews as rapacious and controlling, and white people who believe in a multicultural society as race traitors who also deserve to die. —James Shapiro, The Atlantic, 18 July 2025

The World War II White House did not mark the opening of an internment camp by breathlessly reporting a ravenous cannibal detainee said to be eating himself while in federal custody on a deportation flight. —Orlando Sentinel, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 July 2025

The danger has only increased as of late, with an influx in cannibals infiltrating farms posing as soldiers making routine inspections. —Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 1 July 2025

Word History

Etymology

New Latin Canibalis Carib, from Spanish Caníbal, from Taino Caniba, of Cariban origin; akin to Carib kariʔna Carib, person

First Known Use

1541, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

cannibal

noun

can·​ni·​bal ˈkan-ə-bəl 

: a human being or an animal that eats its own kind

Etymology

from New Latin Canibalis "Carib," from Spanish Caníbal (same meaning), from Taino (American Indian language of the Greater Antilles) Caniba (same meaning), of Carib origin

Word Origin

On Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World the Indigenous peoples whom he encountered in Cuba and Hispaniola told him about a people living to their east, who periodically raided them and whom they greatly feared. In his log Columbus recorded a number of phonetically similar names for this people, including caníbales and caribes. The Spanish court historian Petrus Martyr wrote a Latin account of Columbus's discoveries, first printed in 1516, that used these two words and widely distributed them throughout Europe. In Petrus Martyr's words, "the inhabitants of these islands assert that the Canibales or Caribes are eaters of human flesh." Later, the meaning of the two words diverged. Caribes was applied to the Carib-speaking peoples of the Lesser Antilles and South America who were so feared by their neighbors; it is also ultimately the base of the word Caribbean. Canibales passed into English as a generic word for any creature that eats the flesh of its own kind.

Medical Definition

cannibal

noun

can·​ni·​bal ˈkan-ə-bəl 

: one that eats the flesh of its own kind

cannibal adjective