variants
or less commonly must
: a periodic state of the bull elephant characterized especially by aggressive behavior and usually connected with the rutting season
Examples of musth in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
If resources are plentiful year round, males can go through musth at any time, and reproduction in those elephant populations can occur throughout the year.
—
Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 3 May 2023
Mammoths With Musth Auchus also analyzed powder from a male African elephant and found annual testosterone spikes consistent with musth, as expected.
—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 May 2023
Evidence of the testosterone surge from musth is can be detected in the blood and urine tests of living elephants.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 May 2023
Researchers are also curious whether changes in musth over time could offer clues about what contributed to mammoths’ demise and eventual extinction roughly 4,000 years ago.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 May 2023
The findings provide what researchers believe to be the first direct evidence that, like elephants, mammoths also experienced musth.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 May 2023
And some fossils have preserved evidence of the male-on-male violence that typically happens during musth.
—Amber Dance, Discover Magazine, 27 Nov. 2018
The elephants are only chained, said Visit, when males become aggressive due to a rise in reproductive hormones, a natural state known as musth.
—David Luekens, CNN, 21 Dec. 2021
Instead, a bull spends his annual two- or three-month stint of erotic drive searching for willing females in estrus, or fighting with other males in musth, all the while eating relatively little.
—New York Times, 3 June 2021
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 3 May 2023
Mammoths With Musth Auchus also analyzed powder from a male African elephant and found annual testosterone spikes consistent with musth, as expected.
—Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 May 2023
Evidence of the testosterone surge from musth is can be detected in the blood and urine tests of living elephants.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 May 2023
Researchers are also curious whether changes in musth over time could offer clues about what contributed to mammoths’ demise and eventual extinction roughly 4,000 years ago.
—Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 May 2023
The findings provide what researchers believe to be the first direct evidence that, like elephants, mammoths also experienced musth.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 3 May 2023
And some fossils have preserved evidence of the male-on-male violence that typically happens during musth.
—Amber Dance, Discover Magazine, 27 Nov. 2018
The elephants are only chained, said Visit, when males become aggressive due to a rise in reproductive hormones, a natural state known as musth.
—David Luekens, CNN, 21 Dec. 2021
Instead, a bull spends his annual two- or three-month stint of erotic drive searching for willing females in estrus, or fighting with other males in musth, all the while eating relatively little.
—New York Times, 3 June 2021
Cite this Entry
“Musth.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/musth. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share