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critter

UK/ˈkɹɪtə/US/ˈkɹɪtɚ/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spokeninformal · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: critters

Critter is a homely word for a small animal. A mouse, a beetle, whatever is rustling in the hedge.

It is a dialect form of creature, chiefly American and rural, and it is warm rather than scientific, which is why nature programmes for children use it and journals do not. It covers anything small and living, including insects, which creature does not quite. There is a faintly affectionate tone even when the critter in question has got into the loft.

Definitions of critter

  1. 1nouncritterA small animal or creature.C2

    “Some critter had been at the bird feeder.”

Also accepted in games: creature

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *ḱer- (grow)

  2. English, today

    critter

First attested 1815, from a dialectal pronunciation of creature.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 32 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

critter in the wild

  • In American folklore, the axehandle hound (axhandle hound, ax-handle hound, or similar) is a fearsome critter of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

    Axehandle hound

  • In Critter Crunch, players assume the role of Biggs, a friendly, furry forest dweller with an unending hunger for tasty critters.

    Critter Crunch

  • In American folklore, the Gumberoo is a fearsome critter with hide so tough that bullets bounce off of it.

    Gumberoo

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.