Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of several wildcats of the genus Lynx, especially L. canadensis of northern North America or L. lynx of Eurasia, having soft thick fur, a black-tipped short tail, and tufted ears.
  • noun A constellation in the Northern Hemisphere, near Auriga and Gemini.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A wild cat with a short tail, penciled ears, and 28 teeth, belonging to the family Felidæ and genus Lynx, such as the caracal, the loup-cervier, and others.
  • noun [capitalized] A genus of Felidæ lacking the front upper premolar of the true cats; the lynxes.
  • noun [capitalized] A small northern constellation introduced by Hevelius in 1690, the name being chosen because the sharp-sightedness of a lynx is required to distinguish any of its stars.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of feline animals of the genus Felis, and subgenus Lynx. They have a short tail, and usually a pencil of hair on the tip of the ears.
  • noun (Astron.) One of the northern constellations.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of several medium-sized wild cats, mostly of the genus Lynx.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a text browser
  • noun short-tailed wildcats with usually tufted ears; valued for their fur

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Latin, from Greek lunx; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lynx, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lunx). Replaced Old English lox.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word lynx.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Also a terminal web browser.

    October 24, 2007

  • I suppose it's understandable that WeirdNet's priorities lie with software.

    September 8, 2009

  • Does that make me a lynx? I browse text.

    September 8, 2009

  • These things always go missing. What to do?

    November 3, 2009

  • Put them in a chain lynx to keep them together.

    November 3, 2009

  • :-) Betcha they sneak out to play golf anyway.

    November 4, 2009

  • Right. On the lynx.

    November 4, 2009

  • Cool word, cool spelling. Thx mollusque!

    December 6, 2009