service animal

noun

plural service animals

: a domesticated animal and usually a dog that is trained to perform a supportive function for its owner (such as guiding an owner who is blind or alerting an owner who is deaf to sounds)

A service animal is trained to assist a disabled person by performing specific tasks: They guide the blind, signal the hearing-impaired, pull wheelchairs and so on.

—Cecil Adams

Now, service animals help people with a variety of conditions, such as autism, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder.

—Suzy Fleming Leonard

Michael was able to be retrained as a psychological service animal for Bessler, helping him deal with his traumatic brain injury.

—Alexandra Klausner

Note: Some government agencies (such as the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) have official definitions of service animal that are more restrictive than the term's meaning in general English.

Examples of service animal in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

However, monkeys that were kept as pets as of 1992 and monkeys that are currently being used as service animals are permitted with regulations. —Bella Waters, Kansas City Star, 25 July 2025

And Amanda has become an advocate for the blind, traveling to Washington, D.C., to lobby, and flying to San Francisco to protest rideshare drivers who deny rides to passengers with wheelchairs or service animals, the Tennessee Tech publicity people tell me. —The Tennessean, 2 July 2025

As a disabled person moving through the park with a service animal, Hurtado was nervous for their day at Disneyland. —Colson Thayer, People.com, 17 July 2025

Pets are not allowed though service animals as defined by the ADA are. —Heather McRea, Oc Register, 16 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above