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gazelle

UK/ɡəˈzɛl/US/ɡəˈzɛl/
nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,599 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: gazelles

A gazelle is a small swift graceful antelope. A herd of gazelle, run like a gazelle, Thomson's gazelle.

The name is a byword for lightness of movement, and it turns up in poetry far more often than the animal does in life. Gazelles bounce stiff-legged when alarmed, which is called pronking.

Mvshreeram · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of gazelle

  1. 1noungazelleA small swift graceful antelope.B2+

    “A gazelle broke from the herd and outran the dogs easily.”

gazelle is an animal.

Where it comes from

Old French gazel comes from Arabic ghazal, the same animal.

  1. Arabic

    غَزَال

  2. Old French

    gazel

  3. Middle French

    gazelle

  4. English, today

    gazelle

Middle French gazelle, from Old French gazel, from Arabic غَزَال.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

gazelle in the wild

  • The dorcas gazelle (Gazella dorcas), also known as the ariel gazelle, is a small and common gazelle.

    Dorcas gazelle

  • Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is one of the best known species of gazelles.

    Thomson's gazelle

  • Thomson's gazelles can be found in numbers exceeding 200,000 in Africa and are recognized as the most common type of gazelle in East Africa.

    Thomson's gazelle

  • Cuvier's gazelle (Gazella cuvieri) is a species of gazelle native to Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Tunisia.

    Cuvier's gazelle

  • The dama gazelle (Nanger dama), also known as the addra gazelle or mhorr gazelle, is a species of gazelle.

    Dama gazelle

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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.