ELEPHANTS Synonyms: 41 Similar and Opposite Words

elephants

noun

variants also elephant

plural of elephant

as in whales

something or someone that is unusually large and powerful by any standard, the new shopping mall will be an elephant and one that is certain to alter the retail landscape

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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.

Recent Examples of elephants Other highlights include visits to the Tribe Art Gallery, the Golden Silk farm, and elephant conservation experiences in the Kulen foothills. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 July 2026 Originally coined by big-game hunters to describe the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot; lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, the phrase has become tourism shorthand for the ultimate safari experience. — Sarah Kingdom, Forbes.com, 17 July 2026 Your kids may get a kick out of seeing a bunch of animals, including an elephant, mouse, pig, and monkey, greeting JJ, too. — Anna Halkidis, Parents, 17 July 2026 From some giant prehistoric sloths that fell into a sinkhole 500,000 years ago to extinct elephants to today’s massive invasive pythons, Florida has always been a biological playground. — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 15 July 2026 Early the next morning, we sat surrounded by a herd of 13 elephants. — Rebekah Peppler, Travel + Leisure, 14 July 2026 That much pressure is like having five elephants standing on your shoulders! — Vahe Peroomian, The Conversation, 13 July 2026 Indeed, woolly mammoth de-extinction efforts have already spun off discoveries that may help protect captive Asian elephants from a deadly herpes virus. — Taylor Dotson, Scientific American, 10 July 2026 However, hunting pygmy elephants may simply not have been worth the effort, even for a species that was otherwise capable of doing it. — ArsTechnica, 9 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for elephants

Noun

Researchers found a relationship between oyster beds and gatherings of fish and whales.

— Kelsey Warner, semafor.com, 15 July 2026
The facility received five beluga whales from Marineland of Canada in 2021.

— Finnegan Belleau, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2026

Definition of whales

Noun

Paramount+ delivered the main full trailer for season 4 on June 15, 2026, and it’s packed with dinosaurs, cowboys, horses, space storms, dreams, nightmares, fire-breathing dragons, haunted spaceships, and hallucinatory pleasure planets.

— Jeff Spry, Space.com, 23 July 2026
Whatever difficulties this might create, dealing with Cassell is probably preferable to trying to get past some dinosaurs via Una’s shoot-the-dinosaur-in-the-mouth stun-and-run strategy, as effective as this turns out to be.

— Keith Phipps, Vulture, 23 July 2026

Definition of dinosaurs

Noun

But of the two Premier League giants who have thrown their financial heft at these signings, whose is the better deal?

— Cerys Jones, New York Times, 24 July 2026
Despite revenue beats for both technology giants, Wall Street appeared more focused on — and concerned by — their artificial intelligence spending.

— Alex Harring, CNBC, 23 July 2026

Definition of giants

Noun

According to this theory, those now-extinct megafauna—the giant ground sloths and the giant beavers, the mastodons and mammoths, and even the lions and dire wolves—were relatively quickly hunted to extinction.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 10 June 2026
The artificial egg tech is the latest addition to Colossal's list of de-extinction projects, which now span dodo birds, dire wolves, and mammoths.

— Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 19 May 2026

Definition of mammoths

Noun

Over the last two seasons of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the titular demigod (Walker Scobell) has faced off against a minotaur, sailed to the sea of monsters, been chased by Cerberus, and even magically transformed into a guinea pig.

— Emlyn Travis, Entertainment Weekly, 21 July 2026
With the franchise’s trademark blend of extreme gore and dark humor, the Evil Dead backstory centers on the ancient Book of the Dead that unleashes supernatural evil forces and twists victims into sadistic, shape-shifting, near-invincible monsters.

— Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 21 July 2026

Definition of monsters

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elephantine

elephants

elevate

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“Elephants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/elephants. Accessed 27 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of elephants

noun

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