EDENTATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does edentate mean? 

• EDENTATE (noun)
  The noun EDENTATE has 1 sense:

1. primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America

  Familiarity information: EDENTATE used as a noun is very rare.

• EDENTATE (adjective)
  The adjective EDENTATE has 1 sense:

1. having few if any teeth

  Familiarity information: EDENTATE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EDENTATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Primitive terrestrial mammal with few if any teeth; of tropical Central America and South America

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("edentate" is a kind of...):

eutherian; eutherian mammal; placental; placental mammal (mammals having a placenta; all mammals except monotremes and marsupials)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "edentate"):

armadillo (burrowing chiefly nocturnal mammal with body covered with strong horny plates)

sloth; tree sloth (any of several slow-moving arboreal mammals of South America and Central America; they hang from branches back downward and feed on leaves and fruits)

megatherian; megatherian mammal; megatheriid (a large extinct ground sloth)

mylodontid (a variety of extinct edentate)

mylodon (large (bear-sized) extinct edentate mammal of the Pleistocene in South America)

anteater; New World anteater (any of several tropical American mammals of the family Myrmecophagidae which lack teeth and feed on ants and termites)

Holonyms ("edentate" is a member of...):

Edentata; order Edentata (order of mammals having few or no teeth including: New World anteaters; sloths; armadillos)

• EDENTATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having few if any teeth

Synonyms:

edental; edentate; edentulate

Context example:

anteaters are edentate animals

Similar:

toothless (lacking teeth)