English Explanatory Dictionary

unicorn

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A mythical horse, widely believed to exist until the 17th century, with a single, straight, spiraled horn projecting from its forehead.
  2. In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.
  3. Certain animals:
  4. Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax, especially the Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus.
  5. A caterpillar, Schizura unicornis, with a large thorn-like spine on the back near its head.
  6. The kamichi, or unicorn bird.
  7. A Siberian unicorn, †Elasmotherium sibiricum.
  8. An Asian unicorn, or saola, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis.
  9. A howitzer.
  10. Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
  11. A single, usually bisexual woman who participates in swinging or polyamory.
  12. A person with multidisciplinary expertise, especially a laundry list of three or more skills in a young field such as UX design or data science (e.g., domain knowledge, statistics, and software engineering).
verb
  1. To participate in a sexual threesome as a bisexual addition to an established heterosexual couple.
  2. To exceed a valuation of one billion U.S. dollars, while solely backed by venture capitalists.
adj
  1. Having one horn.
  2. Rare and hard to find.

Pronunciation

/ˈjuː.nɪ.kɔːn/ /ˈju.nɪ.kɔɹn/ En-au-unicorn.ogg

Word forms

unicorn unicorns unicorning unicorned

Etymology

From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). Displaced native Old English ānhorn, itself a calque. Other senses from either rarity (e.g., possessing multiple skills) or by physical resemblance to having a horn (e.g., howitzer). The finance sense was coined by American investor Aileen Lee and first used in a 2013 article.

Synonyms

monoceros black swan hen's tooth lightning in a bottle one in a million rara avis rare bird rarity rocking horse shit unicorn purple squirrel

Related words

alicorn bicorne blessing monoceros qilin kirin reem tricorn tricorne

Derived words

Asian unicorn bunnicorn bunnycorn Chinese unicorn half-unicorn Invisible Pink Unicorn pegacorn rainbows and unicorns rainbow unicorns sea unicorn Siberian unicorn unicorn bait unicorn barf unicorn beast unicorn hunter unicorn hunting unicornic unicornlike unicorn plant unicorn puke unicorn root unicorn vomit unicornity

Translations

Afrikaans: eenhoring Albanian: briqen Albanian: njëbrirësh Arabic: أُحَادِيُّ القَرْن Arabic: حَرِيش Arabic: يُونِيكُورْن Armenian: միեղջյուր Asturian: unicorniu Azerbaijani: təkbuynuz Bashkir: һыңармөгөҙ Basque: adarbakar Belarusian: аднаро́г Breton: unkorneg Bulgarian: иноро́г Bulgarian: едноро́г Catalan: unicorn Cherokee: ᏐᏈᎵ ᎤᏟᎩ Chinese Mandarin: 獨角獸 /独角兽 Czech: jednorožec Danish: enhjørning Dutch: eenhoorn Esperanto: unukornulo Estonian: ükssarvik Faroese: einhyrningur Finnish: yksisarvinen French: licorne West-Frisian: ienhoarn Galician: unicornio Georgian: მარტორქა German: Einhorn Greek: μονόκερως Ancient Greek: μονόκερως Greenlandic: enhjørningi Greenlandic: tuugaalik Hebrew: חַד־קֶרֶן Hindi: इकसिंगा Hungarian: unikornis Hungarian: egyszarvú Icelandic: einhyrningur Ido: unikorno Indonesian: unikorn Indonesian: kuda bertanduk Irish: aonbheannach Italian: unicorno Italian: liocorno Japanese: 麒麟 Japanese: 一角獣 Japanese: ユニコーン Japanese: 一角馬 Javanese: unikorn Kazakh: жалғыз мүйіз
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