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leonine

UK/ˈliːənaɪn/US/ˈliəˌnaɪn/
adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Leonine means resembling a lion in look or bearing. A leonine head, leonine features, a leonine mane of hair.

It is used almost entirely of hair and of bearing, and it is a compliment about presence rather than about ferocity. Several popes took the name Leo, and Leonine has a separate architectural sense in Rome from the wall one of them built.

Definitions of leonine

  1. 1adjectiveleonineResembling a lion in look or bearing.C2

    “The old actor had a leonine head of thick grey hair.”

leonine is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin leoninus comes from leo, a lion, which reached Latin from Greek leon.

  1. Ancient Greek

    λέων — lion

  2. Latin

    leōnīnus — of or pertaining to a lion

  3. Old French

    leonin

  4. Middle English

    leonin,leonine — characteristic of a lion, lionlike

  5. English, today

    leonine

Built from

  • leō · Latin — lion

From Late Middle English leonin,leonine (“characteristic of a lion, lionlike”), from Old French leonin, and from its etymon Latin leōnīnus (“of or pertaining to a lion”), from leō (“lion”) (from Ancient Greek λέων (“lion”); further etymology uncertain) + -īnus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

leonine in the wild

  • Cupidesthes leonina, the leonine ciliate blue, is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.

    Cupidesthes leonina

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.