critter

English

Etymology

First attested 1815, from a dialectal pronunciation of creature.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: krĭtʹər IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪtɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹɪtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: crit‧ter

Noun

critter (plural critters)

1. (usually endearing, US, Australia) A creature, an animal.
   • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

     The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.

2. (rail transport, US) A small locomotive used in an industrial setting.
   • 2025 March 7 (last accessed), R. Craig Rutherford, The Diesel Shop‎^[1]:

     One of the biggest challenges facing a railfan photographer is the correct identification of one manufacturer's "critter" locomotive from that of another competing builder.

Coordinate terms

• beastie

Derived terms

• congresscritter
• crispy critter
• crittercam
• critterproof
• crotch critter
• gendercritter
• salescritter
• spokescritter
• werecritter

Translations

a creature

• Czech: tvor (cs) m, stvoření (cs) n
• Finnish: luontokappale (fi)
• French: bébête (fr) f, bestiole (fr) f
• German: Kreatur (de) f, Tier (de) n
• Italian: bestiola (it) f, animaletto m
• Polish: futrzak (pl) m, stworzonko (pl) n
• Portuguese: criatura (pt) f
• Romanian: creatură (ro) f, vietate (ro) f
• Russian: зверюшка (ru) f (zverjuška), зверушка (ru) f (zveruška), зверёк (ru) m (zverjók)
• Spanish: criatura (es) f, bichito m, críter m (Peru)
• Swedish: kreatur (sv) n