lion
Plurallions
Plurallions
- 1A large, tawny wild cat of Africa and India that lives in groups, the male having a shaggy mane.
At dusk the lion rose from the grass and began stalking the wildebeest herd.
Ancient writers described lions living in the mountains of northern Greece.
UsagePlural lions. A group is a pride of lions, and the female is a lioness.
- 2Any of several big cats, living or extinct, especially the mountain lion.
Wildlife officers tracked the lion to a rocky ledge above the trailhead outside Boulder.
Ice Age deposits in California preserve the bones of lions far larger than today's African species.
UsageSay mountain lion to be clear; plain lion is read as the African cat unless the setting shows otherwise.
Note
A broadened use, in which lion reaches past Panthera leo to other big cats, living and extinct. The mountain lion is the most common case.
- 3A person of great strength, courage, or ferocity, qualities associated with lions.
In the courtroom she was a lion, tearing apart every weak argument the defense offered.
Critics called the young senator a lion for taking on the party establishment.
Note
Applied to a person, the animal becomes a set of qualities, and the speaker decides which ones. The word praises when it means courage and condemns when it means pride or ferocity. One old construction names the quality outright. In a poem of about 1264, Prince Edward, the future Edward I, was called "a lion for pride and ferocity but a pard for inconstancy", with one animal set against another for each failing.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- The poem containing the comparison is The Song of Lewes, dated approximately 1264. en.wikipedia.org
- Prince Edward was the future King Edward I. lemdo.uvic.ca
- The quoted wording is an attested English rendering of the comparison applied to Edward. en.wiktionary.org
- The poem explicitly associates the lion with pride and ferocity and the pard with inconstancy and changeableness. gutenberg.org
- 4A Chinese foo dog, a stylized lion statue traditionally placed as a guardian at gateways and entrances.
Following tradition, the owners placed a pair of carved lions, one male and one female, at the entrance of their new restaurant in Chinatown.
The bronze lion at the gate rested one paw on an ornamental ball.
Less common meanings
- 5A celebrity who attracts eager interest and curiosity from others.
Fresh from her solo flight across the Atlantic, she was the lion of the Washington social season.
Every hostess in the city competed to seat the visiting poet, that winter's lion, at her table.
UsageOften the lion of an event, place or season: the lion of the season.
Similarcelebrity, star, sensation, luminary
Note
The social lion is the person everyone comes to look at, and the image behind it is the menagerie. In Melville's Omoo (1847), the narrator and his companions become "the lions of the neighbourhood", shown to visitors the way country people are taken to the Zoological Gardens. John Wilson's Burns was "not a lion, but a man", which shows the cost of being looked at rather than known.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The social-lion image refers to lions exhibited in a menagerie. en.wiktionary.org
- Herman Melville wrote Omoo, first published in 1847. en.wikipedia.org
- The original publication year is supported by an 1847 edition's title page. archive.org
- The narrator calls himself and his companions 'the lions of the neighbourhood'. gutenberg.org
- The narrator compares visitors coming to see the men with country people being taken to the Zoological Gardens. gutenberg.org
- John Wilson described Burns as 'not a lion, but a man'. en.wiktionary.org
- 6
- 7Of a light brown color resembling the fur of a lion.
Similartawny, fawn, tan, buff, camel
Note
The adjective partner of the color name, and it does not take degrees: nothing is lioner or more lion than something else. It works in two positions. It can stand before a noun, as in lion velvet, or after a linking verb, as when grass has gone lion.
- 8Any of several old Scottish coins bearing a lion on the obverse.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek λέων (léōn), whose own origin is unclear, gave Latin leō (accusative leōnem). From Latin it passed to Old French as lion and was borrowed into Middle English as lyoun. It pushed out Old English lēo, which had come from the same Latin word.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- The origin of Ancient Greek λέων (léōn) is unclear. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin leō was borrowed from Ancient Greek λέων. en.wiktionary.org
- The Latin accusative of leō is leōnem. en.wiktionary.org
- Old French lion came from Latin. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English lyoun was borrowed from Old French. en.wiktionary.org
- The French-derived word displaced Old English lēo, which also came from Latin leō. en.wiktionary.org