Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A person who eats the flesh of other humans.
- n. An animal that feeds on others of its own kind.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A human being who eats human flesh; a human man-eater or anthropophagite.
- n. Hence Any animal that eats the flesh of members of its own or kindred species.
- Pertaining to or characteristic of cannibals or cannibalism: as, “cannibal ferocity,”
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A human being that eats human flesh; hence, any that devours its own kind.
- adj. Relating to cannibals or cannibalism.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person who eats human flesh
Etymologies
- From Spanish Cannibalis, from Caniba, the Taino form recorded by Christopher Columbus for the Caribs, who were greatly feared. From an Arawakan language, probably Taino. (Wiktionary)
- From Spanish Caníbalis, name (as recorded by Christopher Columbus) of the allegedly cannibalistic Caribs of Cuba and Haiti, from earlier Carib karibna, person, Carib. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It remains to be seen how serious the cannibal is about changing his ways.”
“My GPS tells me exactly where to turn and when and I love her and I am so heartily sorry for all the times I've suspected that she's trying to leave me for dead on an unpaved road in cannibal territory.”
What I did on the weekend -- Part 2: How do you say "Curse you, Mapquest!" in French?
“Solomon Kane is deep in cannibal country, when he comes across even worse.”
“Does the word cannibal, applied to the Caribs of the West India”
“Does the word cannibal, applied to the Caribs of the West India Islands, belong to the language of this archipelago (that of Haiti)? or must we seek for it in an idiom of”
“With respect to the etymology of the word cannibal, it seems to me entirely cleared up by the discovery of the journal kept by Columbus during his first voyage of discovery, and of which Bartholomew de las Casas has left us an abridged copy.”
“Then she introduces two topless and stacked young women she describes as cannibal sisters.”
“A cannibal is a "gastronome of the old school"; longevity is the "uncommon extension of the fear of death.”
“ROUEN, France mdash; A French court on Thursday convicted a man dubbed the cannibal of Rouen of killing his cellmate and eating part of the ...”
“He was best known as a cannibal, but his acts of sadomasochism riveted psychiatrists, too.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cannibal’.
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Orwellian Purism
Words and phrases George Orwell criticizes in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'.
ring the changes on, take up the cudge..., toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to..., play into the han..., no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubl..., on the order of t..., Achilles’ heel, swan song and 162 more...
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Perponyms
List of words referent to persons who commit specific crimes, or are suspected of committing those crimes, beginning with arsonist and safecracker.
Check out reesetee's nice Bad Guys l...arsonist, safecracker, murderer, rapist, getaway man, jewel thief, accomplice, drug dealer, carjacker, gunrunner, industrial spy, human trafficker and 216 more...
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people (bad)
nouns for bad people / words that describe bad people.
goto the good people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )culprit, perpetrator, tormentor, swindler, bamboozler, nincompoop, thief, liar, back stabber, vandal, burglar, cheater and 85 more...
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Worse Than They Sound
fistula, cryptosporidium, debride, donnybrook, decerebrate, pillory, flagellate, disembogue, minatory, micturate, coprolite, nosocomial and 160 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Junk
walrus, fascination, broadway, fickle, downturn, bridge, gargle, rotunda, mesh, fab, shortlife, strumming and 304 more...
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JJMARLETTE's Words
phantasmagorical, antidisestablishm..., gargantuan, apocryphal, maim, disembowel, viscous, apothecary, seminal, exponential, googol, googolplex and 90 more...
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Loxodont's list
circumambulate, atelectasis, paramount, therefore, apotropaic, facture, identity, dome, lecture, cannibal, catatonia, rite and 119 more...
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MacBean's Words
verisimilitude, antediluvian, schadenfreude, eviscerate, exsanguinate, onomatopoeia, aesthetic, apocryphal, aubergine, byronic, brouhaha, bordello and 523 more...
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Day Day Up
spurn, underscore, bode, anecdotal, phenomenal, straddle, epic, redux, unspool, rhetoric, censor, savvy and 38 more...
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post-colonial terms
aboriginal, abrogation, alterity, ambivalence, apartheid, appropriation, authenticity, binarism, black consciousness, cannibal, caribbean, cartography and 38 more...
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deceptive, erotic, harsh
From the Brooklyn Bridge to St. Petersburg /
In every boardroom or boudoir across the world /
From the Fall of Rome to the Renaissance /
Through Reformation, Cold War, Vietnam.headless, beast, bones, leftovers, warlike, groan, cannibal, gruesome, stench, war, carrion, cataclysm and 56 more...
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new words
words iv just learned or seen
ifrigment, unision, choisest, affability, astralagi, etamine, absence, anesthesiologist, alembic, cannibal, impacted, abscess and 19 more...
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Words Of A Delicious Nature
mendacity, tenacious, loquacious, delicious, innocuous, edification, irrational, dissonance, exuberance, portend, ignoble, sagacity and 33 more...
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Truly American Words
American words with deep native roots...
wendigo, Podunk, adirondack, wigwam, caribou, chipmunk, poncho, pecan, moccasin, muskrat, moose, persimmon and 46 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cannibal.
oroboros When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion. Oct 21, 2008
oroboros Daffynition: a person who's fed up with people. Jan 6, 2007