pachyderm
noun
Did you know?
Pachydermos in Greek means literally "having thick skin" (figuratively, it means "dull" or "stupid"). It's from pachys, meaning "thick," and derma, meaning "skin." In the late 1700s, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier adapted the Greek term as pachyderme for any one of a whole assemblage of hoofed animals having thickish skin: elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, horses, pigs, and more. English speakers learned the word from French in the early 1800s. The adjective pachydermatous means "of or relating to the pachyderms" or "thickened" (referring to skin). Not too surprisingly, it also means "callous" or "insensitive" (somewhat unfairly especially to elephants, which are actually known to be rather sensitive).
Examples of pachyderm in a Sentence
Don Sweeney, Sacbee.com, 7 Apr. 2025
These endangered pachyderms must eat upwards of 330 pounds of low-calorie vegetation per day to sustain themselves.
—Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 26 Mar. 2025
Still, both her extended family and the local Mourning Industrial Complex insist that everyone sweeps these oh-so-inconvenient facts under the rug, lest everyone have to deal with an extremely uncomfortable, 10-ton pachyderm in the middle of the room.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 7 Mar. 2025
The heads of the pachyderms are low and rounded, their tusks bearing a peculiar curve to them, and their ears are too small.
—Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 4 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pachyderm
Cite this Entry
“Pachyderm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pachyderm. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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pachyderm
noun
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