FERAL
What does "FERAL" mean?
Wild, especially after having escaped from domestication or captivity.
Meanings
- Having returned to a wild state from domestication. Feral cats roamed the abandoned docks.
- Savage, untamed, or wildly out of control. The crowd turned feral as the gates failed. figurative
Did you know?
- 'Feral' and 'wild' are not synonyms: a wild animal was never tamed, while a feral one was domesticated and then escaped back into the wild - a one-way door it rarely returns through.
Word origin
From Latin 'fera' meaning 'a wild animal', from 'ferus' 'wild'; the same root underlies 'fierce' and 'ferocious', all circling the idea of the untamed.
A little poem
It slept by hearths it now forgets,
and learned again the older debts-
the hunger, hunt, and no regrets.
tercet
Wordplay
- My houseplant went feral over the summer. Technically it escaped domestication; mostly it just needed water.
What it teaches
What was once tamed can return to the wild, but the road back to the hearth is far longer than the road out.
Quick facts
What does FERAL mean?
Wild, especially after having escaped from domestication or captivity.
Is FERAL a valid word?
Yes — FERAL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is FERAL?
FERAL has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does FERAL come from?
From Latin 'fera' meaning 'a wild animal', from 'ferus' 'wild'; the same root underlies 'fierce' and 'ferocious', all circling the idea of the untamed.
What can FERAL teach us?
What was once tamed can return to the wild, but the road back to the hearth is far longer than the road out.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.