Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various extinct saber-toothed cats of the genus Smilodon, having very long upper canines and widespread in Europe and the Americas during the late Pleistocene Epoch.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Paleon.) An extinct genus of saber-toothed tigers. See
mach�rodus .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Any member of the
extinct genus Smilodon, thesaber-toothed tigers .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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If smilodon and its ilk aren't considered "real" sabre-toothed cats, then what is the world coming to?
Ancient Enemies 2007
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: Toothsome, not to mention fearsome, saber-toothed cats actually had quite a weak bite, according to research that suggests the smilodon, one of the most fascinating of prehistoric beasts, had jaws that were too weak to grip its prey as a lion does and may have had to fight and pin animals to the ground before delivering a single fatal bite to the neck.
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In any case, I expect that the Discovery Institute will be going the way of People for the New American Century and the smilodon inside of a year.
SMU Daily: The Discovery Institute: harming us with pseudoscience - The Panda's Thumb 2007
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Bothe Megantereon and Dinofelis were machariodonts, same as smilodon.
Ancient Enemies 2007
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I imagine having an extra set of eyes, ears and teeth would have helped against meat eating heavyweights like arctodus simus, homotherium latidens, panthera leo atrox, smilodon fatalis and who knows, maybe even relict populations of titanis walleri.
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This deep in the highlands of Harmonia, even _Homo smilodon_ needed bottled air.
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He stepped forward with the key, and the smilodon voiced no protest.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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"There is a great one among you," she said, and her voice was like the playing of a hundred citharae, or the purr of the smilodon, the cat that slew our bulls as wolves kill sheep.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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As I watched, a timber nearly as thick as the _Alcyone's_ mizzenmast, though not so high, was set into the rock where the spur left the mountain, and a smilodon chained to its base.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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The consternation on the soldiers 'faces when they saw that he and the smilodon were gone entertained us; but it was nothing compared to their expressions when they discovered both in my shelter.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
chained_bear commented on the word smilodon
This creature was a large, happy-go-lucky animal that frequently encouraged its fellow creatures to skip joyfully through their environs, whether those environs were a primeval forest, a swamp, or some other godforsaken petrochemical-laden or volcanic area.
Just kidding. It was actually a fairly vicious-looking saber-toothed cat with a freakishly misleading name. "Among the largest felids, the heaviest specimens of this massively built carnivore may have reached a body mass of up to 400 kg/880 pounds." I wonder if even this fascinating animal could be made more interesting with the addition of a G...
Interestingly—probably a bunch of wordies already knew this, but I didn't—the name comes from the Greek word "smilē," which means "chisel." (So saith Wikipedia, anyhow.)
September 3, 2008
reesetee commented on the word smilodon
And here I thought this was on your "fake dinosaurs" list.
September 3, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word smilodon
No, but it's now on my "more fun with added G" list. :)
September 3, 2008
japitxatx commented on the word smilodon
Though I know this name is apt in Greek, I can't help but see a very happy mafia boss when I hear this word.
May 20, 2009