creature
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Existing since Middle English in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French, from Late Latin creātūra, from creō.[1] Displaced native Old English gesceap (“creature”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: krē'chə, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃə/
- (General American) enPR: krē'chər, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃəɹ/
Audio (US) (file) - enPR: krē.āʹtyo͝or, IPA(key): /kɹiːˈeɪtjʊə/ (archaic)
- Rhymes: -iːtʃə(ɹ)
Noun[edit]
creature (plural creatures)
- A living being; an animal or (sometimes derogatory) a human.
- He's a creature of habit. insects and other creatures
- 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
- According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
- (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.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest[1]:
- She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
- 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":
- 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.
- 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:
Usage notes[edit]
- 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[edit]
- See also Thesaurus:creature
Derived terms[edit]
- creature comfort
- (from dialectal forms) critter, creetur, cratur, craythur
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
living being
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
References[edit]
- ^ The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
- creature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- creature in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams[edit]
Italian[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- Rhymes: -ure
Noun[edit]
creature f
Latin[edit]
Participle[edit]
creātūre
Middle Dutch[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
creature f
Inflection[edit]
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Descendants[edit]
- Dutch: creatuur
Further reading[edit]
- “creature”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- “creature”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929
Middle English[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
From Old French criature, creature, from Latin creātūra; equivalent to createn + -ure.
Alternative forms[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- IPA(key): /krɛːaːˈtiu̯r/, /krɛːaˈtiu̯r/, /krɛːaˈtuːr/
- (reduced second syllable) IPA(key): /krɛːˈtiu̯r/, /ˈkrɛːətiu̯r/, /ˈkrɛːtur/
- (accented second syllable) IPA(key): /krɛˈaːtiu̯r/, /ˈkraːtiu̯r/
Noun[edit]
creature (plural creatures)
- Something that has been created; an entity or object.
- A living being or creature; an animal or beast.
- A human being (often as a term of self-abasement).
- (rare) The whole world, the totality of existence.
- (rare) The process of making or creation.
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “crēātūre (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-02-18.
Etymology 2[edit]
From Old French creator.
Noun[edit]
creature
- Alternative form of creatour
Old French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
creature f (oblique plural creatures, nominative singular creature, nominative plural creatures)
Descendants[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English 3-syllable words
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English derogatory terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with rare senses
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian noun plural forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin participle forms
- Middle Dutch terms borrowed from Latin
- Middle Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Middle Dutch lemmas
- Middle Dutch nouns
- Middle English terms borrowed from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Old French
- Middle English terms derived from Latin
- Middle English words suffixed with -ure
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Middle English terms with rare senses
- enm:Animals
- enm:Nature
- enm:People
- Old French terms derived from Late Latin
- Old French lemmas
- Old French nouns
- Old French feminine nouns
