Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various hoofed, even-toed, usually horned mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, such as cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and giraffes, characteristically having a stomach divided into four compartments and chewing a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested food.
- adj. Characterized by the chewing of cud.
- adj. Of or belonging to the Ruminantia.
- adj. Meditative; contemplative.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Ruminating; chewing the cud; belonging to the Ruminantia, or having their characters.
- Hence, thoughtful; meditative; quiet.
- n. An animal that chews the cud; any member of the Ruminantia.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. (Zoöl.) Chewing the cud; characterized by chewing again what has been swallowed; of or pertaining to the Ruminantia.
- n. (Zoöl.) A ruminant animal; one of the Ruminantia.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any of various cud-chewing hoofed mammals having a stomach divided into four (occasionally three) compartments
- adj. related to or characteristic of animals of the suborder Ruminantia or any other animal that chews a cud
Etymologies
- Latin rumino, to chew the cud (Wiktionary)
- From Latin rūmināns, rūminant-, present participle of rūmināre, to ruminate; see ruminate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another.”
“If you want to subsist solely on weeds like some sort of bipedal ruminant, that is your right - go for it.”
TED 2008: Crow vending machine maker Joshua Klein - Boing Boing
“When a cow eats infected tissue -- it's called the ruminant feed that they used to get this from -- it can take as much as eight years for that cow to start showing symptoms.”
“My word of the day is "ruminant", in case anyone is wondering.”
“A ruminant is a mammal that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal’s first stomach, known as the rumen, then regurgitating the semi-digested mass, now known as cud, and chewing it again.”
“I sometimes think I am the only really sane man aboard the vessel -- except perhaps the second engineer, who is a kind of ruminant, and would care nothing for all the fiends in the Red Sea so long as they would leave him alone and not disarrange his tools.”
“Other healthy green practices include eschewing trans fat, using fewer "ruminant" meats such as beef and lamb, reducing food waste (by serving smaller portions) and using biodegradables.”
“a kind of ruminant, and would care nothing for all the fiends in the Red”
“Hector proves this was not a mistake and these are precisely the sort of people who buy into this ruminant evacutation. fostert Says:”
“Humans do not possess either the digestive enzymes or the multiple-pouched digestive system enjoyed by ruminant animals, which are capable of consuming and being well-nourished by grain-based carbohydrates in their naturally-occurring state.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ruminant’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Cattle
cattle, cow, beef, steer, heifer, calf, bull, cattle call, Black Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Dwarf Lulu and 402 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Open List: Sheepishness
Everything sheep, from Artiodactyla to zodiac.
lanolin, ram, ewe, Artiodactyla, even-toed ungulate, ruminant, Ovis aries, ovine, domestic, domesticated, neotenic, mouflon and 426 more...
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AGRI - animal husbandry
Terms used in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy referring to policy issues in the animal husbandry sector.
bovine animals, beef labelling, animal husbandry, animal keeper, ear tag, electric fence, kid meat, wean off, battery, beekeeping, laying hen, pig meat and 140 more...
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AGRI - animal health
Herod premium, beef consumption, time hung between..., checks on feed, optimal feeding p..., intensive farming, protein-rich feed..., concentrated feed, grass-fed beef ca..., grass silage, farm-animal feed, incorporation pre... and 156 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Awesome biological adjectives
vespine, virulent, viviparous, vulpine, vulturine, xeromorphic, ursine, ungulate, terricolous, sylvan, setaceous, sciurine and 14 more...
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Cinnamony Sea Anemones & Co.
Words full of m's and n's are a little-known cure for sadness.
aeschynomenous, monomoy, zamzummim, abdominous, abhominal, abonnement, acetaminophen, acetophenone, adenomyoma, aeronomer, agnominal, albuminimeter and 229 more...
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Reading Vocab
ulterior, warrant, syllogism, precious, impiety, maroon, aigrette, batiste, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush, cantankerous, slovenly and 180 more...
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juv3nal's Words
ligature, hermeneutic, caduceus, prelapsarian, apophenia, pataphor, lipogram, epinephrine, ludic, samizdat, oulipo, oulipopo and 194 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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ShuckFinn's Words
abecedarian, conflate, mondegreen, whit, truculent, downright, pugnacious, effluvium, canker, inveigle, obfuscate, melancholy and 227 more...
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inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
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new words!
errata, corrigenda, lacuna, inculcate, chiaroscuro, temerity, folderol, juggernaut, diadem, alacrity, exegesis, portmanteau and 97 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ruminant.
jorge999 Villa
It's time,
I've learned enough,
I'm going from the world awhile
to my imagined Villa,
I cannot wait to see it,
Queen Ann's lace,
and careless daisies,
will smile as I pass,
On a hill,
happy ruminants,
deep peace in a heaven of grass.
-jorge999 Nov 5, 2009