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vulpine

UK/ˈvʌlpaɪn/US/ˈvʌlpaɪn/
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

Vulpine means fox-like, especially in cunning. A vulpine smile, vulpine features, vulpine cunning.

Of a person it is never quite a compliment, since it suggests cleverness with something sly in it. The Latin is the word for a fox, and it is the technical adjective in zoology as well.

Definitions of vulpine

  1. 1adjectivevulpineFox-like, especially in cunning.C2

    “He had a thin, vulpine face with sharp eyes that missed nothing.”

vulpine is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin vulpinus comes from vulpes, a fox.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *wl(o)p- — fox

  2. Latin

    vulpīnus — foxy, fox-like

  3. English, today

    vulpine

Built from

  • volpēs · Latin — fox

Borrowed from Latin vulpīnus (“foxy, fox-like”), from vulpēs, earlier volpēs (“fox”), from Proto-Indo-European wl(o)p- (“fox”). Cognate with Welsh llywarn (“fox”), Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ, Armenian աղուէս, Albanian dhelpër, Lithuanian vilpišỹs (“wildcat”), Sanskrit लोपाश (“jackal, fox”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

vulpine in the wild

  • Ruiz-Ramoni et al. reinterpreted it as a vulpine canid related to North American species Metalopex macconnelli, and to the Eurasian genus Nyctereutes.

    Ferrucyon

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.