Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The native wild “dog,” “wolf,” “tiger,” or “hyena” of Tasmania, Thylacinus cynocephalus, the largest living carnivorous marsupial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) The zebra wolf. See under wolf.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The carnivorous marsupial Thylacinus cynocephalus which was native to Tasmania, now extinct.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun rare doglike carnivorous marsupial of Tasmania having stripes on its back; probably extinct

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From New Latin Thȳlacīnus, genus name, from Greek thūlakos, sack.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Ancient Greek θύλακος (thulakos, "pouch, sack").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word thylacine.

Examples

  • Print Extinct Australian thylacine hunted like a big cat The extinct Australian carnivore known as a thylacine was an ambush predator that could not outrun its prey over long distances, a new analysis shows.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • This week's Animal Oddity is about a bizarre-looking species called a thylacine that was hunted to extinction based on what now seems to be a false assumption about its behavior.

    David Mizejewski: Bizarre Animal Persecuted to Extinction on False Assumption David Mizejewski 2011

  • This week's Animal Oddity is about a bizarre-looking species called a thylacine that was hunted to extinction based on what now seems to be a false assumption about its behavior.

    David Mizejewski: Bizarre Animal Persecuted to Extinction on False Assumption David Mizejewski 2011

  • This week's Animal Oddity is about a bizarre-looking species called a thylacine that was hunted to extinction based on what now seems to be a false assumption about its behavior.

    David Mizejewski: Bizarre Animal Persecuted to Extinction on False Assumption David Mizejewski 2011

  • I first ran across the thylacine aka “Tasmanian tiger” or “Tasmanian wolf” when I was preparing to teach a summer course on vertebrate zoology for a local Catholic college during grad school.

    The Panda's Thumb: Shoptalk Archives 2010

  • I first ran across the thylacine aka “Tasmanian tiger” or “Tasmanian wolf” when I was preparing to teach a summer course on vertebrate zoology for a local Catholic college during grad school.

    Video time capsule - The Panda's Thumb 2005

  • I first ran across the thylacine aka “Tasmanian tiger” or “Tasmanian wolf” when I was preparing to teach a summer course on vertebrate zoology for a local Catholic college during grad school.

    The Panda's Thumb: November 2005 Archives 2005

  • I think about the folks of the International Society of Cryptozoology, an innocent group of impassioned hobbyists who like to travel and dream and make elaborately careful collections of anecdotal evidence regarding improbable beasts, and among whom the thylacine is an icon.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • Canis dingo is a placental mammalian carnivore of doglike shape and size, whereas the thylacine was a marsupial mammalian carnivore of doglike shape and size, and maybe they were too similar for comfort.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • I think about the folks of the International Society of Cryptozoology, an innocent group of impassioned hobbyists who like to travel and dream and make elaborately careful collections of anecdotal evidence regarding improbable beasts, and among whom the thylacine is an icon.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A Tasmanian marsupial, Thylacinus cynocephalus (see also zebra-wolf). Freq. as Tasmanian wolf, though not actually a wolf.

    February 16, 2007

  • Interesting! The word puts me in mind of some type of medical concoction. ;-)

    February 16, 2007

  • or Tasmanian tiger 'cause of his sassy stripes. The marsupial equivalent of the ivory-billed woodpecker.

    February 16, 2007

  • Extinct. Distribution was once quite wide. There's a rock painting of a thylacine up in Kakadu

    which is over 3,000 km plus a bit of water from Tasmania.

    November 23, 2007

  • Despite its extinct status, we live in hope that there are still a few out there.

    November 23, 2007

  • There's been a few attempts to clone them, over the years, but they've been unsuccessful, of course. The latest thing is Adding the DNA to the cells of genetically engineered mice.

    July 10, 2008