What Does Dinosaur Mean?
A dinosaur is one of a group of reptiles that lived on Earth millions of years ago. Some were as tall as a house. Some were as small as a chicken.
We saw a huge dinosaur skeleton at the museum.
My little brother loves dinosaurs.
It also has a playful meaning for something very old-fashioned: Our computer is a dinosaur.
🔊 Pronunciation
DY-nuh-sor
Three parts. The loud part is the first one: DY-nuh-sor.
The first part rhymes with eye. The middle part is quiet, like the uh in sofa. The last part sounds like the saur in saw with an R.
🗣️ Natural Examples
The museum has a dinosaur that is longer than a bus.
Zara wore a dinosaur costume to the party.
Scientists find dinosaur bones in rocks.
That old phone is a real dinosaur.
🛠️ How to Use It
Dinosaur is a countable noun: one dinosaur, two dinosaurs.
- It is usually written with a small d, unless it begins a sentence.
- You can use it as an adjective before another noun: a dinosaur skeleton, a dinosaur book.
- For the playful meaning, use it for a thing or an idea that is very old-fashioned: That rule is a dinosaur.
- Dino is a short, friendly form: a dino party.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- a dinosaur skeleton
- a dinosaur egg
- a dinosaur fossil
- a dinosaur museum
- a dinosaur bone
- a plant-eating dinosaur
👯 Similar and Related Words
- fossil: the remains of an ancient animal or plant that turned into rock.
- reptile: a cold-blooded animal such as a lizard, a snake or a turtle.
- extinct: no longer alive anywhere. The big dinosaurs are extinct.
- mammoth: a large, hairy, extinct animal related to elephants. It is not a dinosaur.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Spelling. Look for the o after the n: dino-saur.
❌ dinasaur, dinosor
✅ dinosaur
Stress the first part.
❌ dy-NO-sor
✅ DY-nuh-sor
A mammoth is not a dinosaur. Mammoths came much later.
❌ The mammoth was a dinosaur.
✅ The mammoth was a big, hairy elephant relative.
💬 In a Conversation
Leo: Did dinosaurs know they were called dinosaurs?
Mia: No.
Leo: Why not?
Mia: The word is only about 180 years old.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
The word was made up by a British scientist, Richard Owen, in the early 1840s. He had studied the bones of three giant extinct reptiles and thought they belonged to a new group.
He built the name from two Greek words:
- deinos: fearful or terrible
- sauros: lizard
So dinosaur means "terrible lizard".
Here is the surprising part. People lived and died for thousands of years near dinosaur bones without a name for them. The animals are millions of years old, but the word is only about 180.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Split the word in two: dino + saur.
Dino is a scary word, and saur is a lizard. A scary lizard is a dinosaur.