Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various extinct terrestrial reptiles of the orders Saurischia and Ornithischia that existed during the Mesozoic Era, including both carnivores and herbivores and often reaching a gigantic size.
- noun Any of various other large extinct reptiles, such as an ichthyosaur.
- noun A relic of the past.
- noun One that is hopelessly outmoded or unwieldy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun One of the Dinosauria. Also spelled
deinosaur .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paleon.) One of the Dinosauria.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any of various
extinct reptiles belonging to theDinosauria , existing between about 230 million and 65 million years ago. - noun figuratively, colloquial A person or organisation which is very old or has very old-fashioned views or is not willing to change and adapt.
- noun figuratively, colloquial Anything that is no longer in common use or practice.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any of numerous extinct terrestrial reptiles of the Mesozoic era
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The name dinosaur comes from the Greek words for monstrous lizard.
dinosaurs 2002
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The term "dinosaur" derived from the English paleontologist Richard Owen in 1842 and in essence it means "terrible, powerful, wondrous lizard."
Lance Simmens: Dinosaurs and Fossil Fools Lance Simmens 2011
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The term dinosaur was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to describe a large extinct reptile.
CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] Ashcraft 2010
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The term dinosaur was invented by Sir Richard Owen in 1842 to describe a large extinct reptile.
CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] Ashcraft 2010
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The replica dinosaur is almost 6 feet tall and uses tens of thousands of bricks.
Extreme Lego 2008
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Mick sighed dramatically, as he often did when confronted with what he called my dinosaur tendencies.
While Other People Sleep Muller, Marcia 1998
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Sir Richard Owen - the man who coined the word "dinosaur."
Forbes.com: News Alex Knapp 2012
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It was given to the Natural History Museum by renowned fossil hunter Sir Richard Owen who helped found the museum and famously coined the word "dinosaur".
BBC News - Home 2011
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The name dinosaur, meaning terrible lizard, represents an order of fossil reptiles.
Wealth of the World's Waste Places and Oceania Jewett Castello Gilson
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It was okay as a novel (but not especially original) and fine as a film (even if it was scientifically implausible), but the threat of being eaten by a dinosaur is a hardy one, and as Transformers proved (the eighties incarnation, not the Michael Bay war crime), talking dinosaurs are fucking brilliant.
I’m Catching Up With Where My NaNoWriMo Novel Is Going « The Graveyard 2009
chained_bear commented on the word dinosaur
Will We Ever Run Out of Dinosaur Bones? Answer: Probably not.
August 31, 2009
yarb commented on the word dinosaur
I'm yoinking peak dinosaur from that interesting article.
September 1, 2009
alexz commented on the word dinosaur
the term dinosaur was coined in 1839 by Sir Richard Owen
http://sciencefriday.com/blogs/07/06/2015/science-diction-dinosaur.html?series=37
July 6, 2015