creature

See also: créature and creäture

English

Alternative forms

  • creäture (archaic, chiefly literary and philosophy)

Etymology

Existing since Middle English in the original sense of “a created thing”, borrowed via Old French, from Late Latin creātūra, from creō.[1] Displaced native Old English gesceap (“creature”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: krē'chə, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃə/
  • (General American) enPR: krē'chər, IPA(key): /ˈkɹiːt͡ʃəɹ/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • enPR: krē.āʹtyo͝or, IPA(key): /kɹiːˈeɪtjʊə/ (archaic)
  • Rhymes: -iːtʃə(ɹ)

Noun

creature (plural creatures)

  1. (now rare) A created thing, whether animate or inanimate; a creation.
    • 1633, John Donne, "Sapho to Philænis":
      Thoughts, my mindes creatures, often are with thee, / But I, their maker, want their libertie.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, I.10:
      the natural truth of God is an artificial erection of Man, and the Creator himself but a subtile invention of the Creature.
    • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:
      She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.
  2. A living being; an animal or human.
    He's a creature of habit.   insects and other creatures
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
      According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
  3. A being subservient to or dependent upon another.
    • 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford 2003, p. 240:
      they, too, despite the appearance of being creatures rather than creators of the Union, could assert the prior sovereignty of their states, for each had formed a state constitution […] before petitioning Congress for admission to the Union.

Usage notes

  • For an explanation of the specialised use of the alternative spelling creäture, see its entry’s usage notes.
  • Adjectives often applied to "creature": evil, living, little, mythical, poor, strange, beautiful, wild, rational, marine, social, legendary, good, mysterious, curious, magical, dangerous, mythological, bizarre, monstrous, unhappy, huge, lowly, ugly, happy, unique, odd, weird, demonic, divine, imaginary, hideous, fabulous, nocturnal, angelic, political.

Hyponyms

  • See also Thesaurus:creature

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

References

  1. ↑ The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
  • creature in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • creature in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

Italian

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ure

Noun

creature f

  1. plural of creatura

Latin

Participle

creātūre

  1. vocative masculine singular of creātūrus

Middle Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin creātūra.

Noun

creature f

  1. creature, being

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

Further reading

  • “creature”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “creature”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Old French

Etymology

Late Latin creātūra.

Noun

creature f (oblique plural creatures, nominative singular creature, nominative plural creatures)

  1. creature; being; entity

Descendants

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