noun
giraffe
jih-RAHF
noun
1
A tall African mammal with an extremely long neck and legs and a patchy, spotted coat, the tallest living land animal.
"The giraffe stretched its neck to reach the highest leaves."
"At the zoo, kids lined up to feed the giraffes."
2
Informal: a person who is unusually tall.
"His teammates jokingly called him "the giraffe" because he towered over everyone."
How to Use Giraffe
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishThe long-necked African animal; informally, a nickname for a very tall person.
Common pairings
giraffe's neck
baby giraffe
Word Forms
giraffes plural, giraffe plural
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Etymology
Traces through French and Italian back to Arabic zarafa, ultimately from a Persian phrase meaning roughly "fast-walker" or "flute-leg" — it displaced the older English word "camelopard".