boar

UK/bɔː(ɹ)/US/boɹ/

nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,637 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: boars

A boar is a wild relative of the pig, with sharp tusks. A wild boar, boar hunting, boar tusks.

It is the ancestor of the domestic pig and can interbreed with it freely. Populations have returned to Britain from escapes, and they are genuinely dangerous when cornered. Boar also means an uncastrated male pig, which is a different sense of the same word.

Definitions of boar

1nounboarA wild pig with tusks.B1+
“A wild boar with sharp tusks charged out of the forest.”

boar is an animal.

Also accepted in games: wild boar

Where it comes from

Old English bar names the male pig, from a Germanic root.

Proto-West Germanic
*bair
Old English
bār
Middle English
bor
English, today
boar

From Middle English bor, boor, from Old English bār, from Proto-West Germanic bair.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Animals

Practise this word

boar in the wild

The wild boar has a long history of association with humans, having been the ancestor of most domestic pig breeds and a big-game animal for millennia.
Wild boar
In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian boar was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild" "tameless" "boar" "of vast weight" "and foaming jaws".
Erymanthian boar
Varaha is navatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, in the form of a boar.
Varaha
The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the 7th century AD.
Benty Grange helmet
The helmet seems to exhibit a stronger preference toward paganism, with a large boar and a small cross.
Benty Grange helmet

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

← Vocabulary