wyvern

noun

wy·​vern ˈwī-vərn 

: a mythical animal usually represented as a 2-legged winged creature resembling a dragon

Did you know?

Wyverns are often depicted as having the tail of a viper-a venomous snake-and that fact is reflected in the etymology of wyvern: it comes ultimately from the Latin word vipera, which means "viper." ("Vipera" is also, of course, the source of our word viper.) The creature the wyvern most closely resembles, however, is the also-mythical dragon. "Dragon" is a much older word-it has been in use since the 13th century, while "wyvern" dates to the early 17th-but it too has snakes in its history. The word originally referred not to the lizard-like creature we imagine today but to a huge serpent.

Examples of wyvern in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There are no gargoyles on this steeple, but there are grotesques, in this case wyverns that look like fire-breathing dragons with scorpion tails. —John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2024

The wriggling wyverns of Arrakis are also able to make the sand around them shift in a preternatural manner. —Popular Science, 6 Mar. 2024

The dial incorporates gold engravings of the man who made the ascent, Jacques Balmat, along with something called a wyvern, the mythical monster that was believed to have lived on Mont Blanc’s Mer de Glace glacier. —Carol Besler, Robb Report, 8 June 2022

You’re on your own researching wyverns, the mascot for the team based in Incheon. —Dallas News, 8 May 2020

In Franche-Comté, the region in which the holotype was discovered, ‘la vouivre’ (=the wyvern) is a legendary winged reptile. —Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 5 May 2017

Word History

Etymology

alteration of Middle English wyvere viper, from Anglo-French wivre, guivre, from Latin vipera

First Known Use

1610, in the meaning defined above

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!