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feline

UK/ˈfiːlaɪn/US/ˈfilaɪn/
adjectiveC12 meaningsVery rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutral

Feline means of cats, or moving with their sleek grace. Either the family, or the manner.

The technical sense is zoological, since the felines are the cat family from a domestic tabby to a tiger, and feline leukaemia is a veterinary term. The descriptive sense is a compliment about movement, and describing somebody as having a feline grace means smooth and deliberate. It pairs with canine for dogs, and both are used in the same two ways.

Definitions of feline

  1. 1adjectiverelatingRelating to cats.C1

    “The clinic specialises in feline medicine.”

  2. 2adjectivefelineGraceful and sleek in the manner of a cat.C2

    “She crossed the room with a feline ease.”

Where it comes from

Feline is Latin for cattish. Fēlēs meant a wildcat or a marten, so the Latin word covered rather more animals than ours does.

  1. Latin

    fēlīnus

  2. English, today

    feline

Built from

  • fēlēs · Latin — wildcat, marten

Latin fēlīnus, from fēlēs (“wildcat, marten”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word