creature

See also créature, and creäture

English

Alternative forms

• creäture (archaic, chiefly literary and philosophy)

Etymology

Existing since Middle English in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French, from Late Latin creatura, from creare.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: krē'chə, IPA: /ˈkɹiːʧə/, SAMPA: /"kr\i:tS@/
• (US) enPR: krē'chər, IPA: /ˈkɻiːʧɚ/, SAMPA: /"kr\`i:tS@`/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -iːtʃə(r)

Noun

creature (plural creatures)

1. (now rare) A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
   • 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":

     Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.

   • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.10:

     the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.

2. A living being; an animal or human.
3. A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
   • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:

     they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.

Usage notes

• For an explanation of the specialised use of the alternative spelling creäture, see its entry’s usage notes.
• Adjectives often applied to "creature": evil, living, little, mythical, poor, strange, beautiful, wild, rational, marine, social, legendary, good, mysterious, curious, magical, dangerous, mythological, bizarre, monstrous, unhappy, huge, lowly, ugly, happy, unique, odd, weird, demonic, divine, imaginary, hideous, fabulous, nocturnal, angelic, political.

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus:creature

Related terms

Related terms

create created creates

creating creation creations

creative creatively creator

creators creatrices creatrix

Derived terms

• creature comfort

Translations

A creature

Armenian: արարած (hy) (araraç), էակ (hy) (ēak) Bulgarian: създание (bg) n., твар (bg) f. Cebuano: mananap Croatian: biće (hr) n. Czech: tvor (cs) m., stvoření (cs) n. Danish: væsen (da), væsener (da) pl. Dutch: schepsel (nl), creatuur (nl), wezen (nl) n. Esperanto: estulo (eo) Finnish: olio (fi) (1,2), olento (fi) (1,2) French: créature (fr) f., être (fr) m. German: Geschöpf (de) n., Kreatur (de) f. Greek: πλάσμα (el) (plázma) n., δημιούργημα (el) (dimiúrgima) n. Hebrew: יצור (yetzur) m. (1-4 - animate) Italian: creatura (it) f. Kazakh: туынды (kk) (twındı) Kurdish: زنده‌وه‌ر (ku)

Macedonian: суштество (mk) (súštestvo) n. Norwegian: skapning (no) c. Old English: ġesceaft (ang) Old Provençal: creatura Polish: istota f., stworzenie n., stwór m., stwory (pl) m. pl. Portuguese: criatura (pt) Romanian: creatură (ro), ființă (ro), făptură (ro) f. Russian: существо (ru), создание (ru), творение (ru), тварь (ru) Scots: craitur Scottish Gaelic: creutair (gd) m. Spanish: creatura (archaic), criatura f. Swedish: varelse (sv) c. Vietnamese: sinh vật (vi), tạo vật (vi) Volapük: (male or female) jafäb (vo), (male) hijafäb (vo), (female) jijafäb (vo), (male or female offspring, young) jafäbül (vo), (diminutive) jafäbil (vo), (collective) jafäbem (vo) West Frisian: skepsel (fy)

References

• creature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• creature in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

---

Italian

Noun

creature f.

1. Plural form of creatura.

---

Latin

Participle

creātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of creātūrus

---

Old French

Etymology

Late Latin creatura.

Noun

creature f. (oblique plural creatures, nominative singular creature, nominative plural creatures)

1. creature; being; entity

Descendants

• English: creature
• French: créature