herbivore

her·bi·vore | \ ˈ(h)ər-bə-ˌvȯr

How to pronounce herbivore (audio)

\

Definition of herbivore

: a herbivorous animal

Examples of herbivore in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Inside Pleistocene Park, there are about 114 individual herbivores per square kilometer (a little over a third of a square mile)—that’s compared with an average of about five animals per square kilometer in the surrounding natural Arctic landscape. — Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American, "Packing the Tundra with Animals Could Slow Arctic Melt," 18 Mar. 2020 Oceanic Society Antillean manatees belong to the sirenian scientific order, whose members are the only completely aquatic mammals that are herbivores. — National Geographic, "Antillean manatee," 12 Feb. 2020 The large herbivores appear to prefer disturbed areas over more intact ones, and spread many more seeds in those places through their droppings. — Jason G. Goldman, Scientific American, "Tapirs Help Reforestation Via Defecation," 1 May 2020 These herbivores are rather adaptable, able to survive in disturbed forests, grasslands, and even rugged mountains. — National Geographic, "Baird's tapir," 20 Mar. 2020 This means any large herbivores that did survive the impact are beginning to starve to death. — Fox News, "Minute by minute accounts of how asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs devastated Earth," 9 Oct. 2019 And Thomas said forestry officials have confirmed that stinknet isn’t palatable to any livestock and is likely unpalatable to native herbivores such as deer, squirrels and rabbits. — Debra Utacia Krol, azcentral, "It may look like a wildflower, but 'stinknet' is a menace to native plants and people," 26 Mar. 2020 At the same time, herbivores keep the abundant algae growing on degraded coral rubble from overtaking the reef, ensuring there are bare places for coral to grow. — Popular Science, "Scientists have found an unlikely ally in the fight to save coral reefs," 10 Dec. 2019 Not only do herbivores like zebra and antelope that feed on grass have less to eat, but more trees may also increase their risk of being eaten as predators have more cover. — Caroline Lehmann, Quartz Africa, "When tree planting actually damages ecosystems," 28 July 2019

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

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about herbivore

Dictionary Entries near herbivore

Statistics for herbivore

Last Updated

21 May 2020

Cite this Entry

“Herbivore.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/herbivore. Accessed 31 May. 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

More Definitions for herbivore

herbivore

noun

English Language Learners Definition of herbivore

: an animal that only eats plants

See the full definition for herbivore in the English Language Learners Dictionary

herbivore

her·bi·vore | \ ˈhər-bə-ˌvȯr

, ˈər- \

Kids Definition of herbivore

: an animal that feeds on plants

herbivore

her·bi·vore | \ ˈ(h)ər-bə-ˌvō(ə)r

, -ˌvȯ(ə)r

\

Medical Definition of herbivore

: a plant-eating animal especially : ungulate

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

palmy

See Definitions and Examples »

Test Your Vocabulary

May 2020 Words of the Day Quiz

Which is a synonym of exiguous?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Dictionary Devil

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.