HIPPO
What does "HIPPO" mean?
A large, mostly aquatic African mammal with a barrel-shaped body and enormous jaws; short for hippopotamus.
Meanings
- A massive semi-aquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa, the hippopotamus. A pod of hippos surfaced in the muddy river just after dawn. informal
Did you know?
- The hippo's pinkish 'blood sweat' isn't blood or sweat at all - it's an oily secretion that screens ultraviolet light and fights bacteria, a built-in sunscreen.
- A hippo can't actually swim: too dense to float, it walks and bounds along the riverbed and surfaces by pushing off the bottom.
Word origin
Clipping of 'hippopotamus', from Greek 'hippopotamos', literally 'river horse', from 'hippos' (horse) + 'potamos' (river).
Remember it
HIPPO hides a HIP and a O - picture the round 'O' of a hippo's wide-open mouth.
A little poem
River horse, half-sunk-
two ears, two eyes on the brown
then the jaw yawns wide.
haiku
What it teaches
Size is not the same as buoyancy; the heaviest things stay afloat by knowing where the bottom is.
Quick facts
What does HIPPO mean?
A large, mostly aquatic African mammal with a barrel-shaped body and enormous jaws; short for hippopotamus.
Is HIPPO a valid word?
Yes — HIPPO is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is HIPPO?
HIPPO has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does HIPPO come from?
Clipping of 'hippopotamus', from Greek 'hippopotamos', literally 'river horse', from 'hippos' (horse) + 'potamos' (river).
What can HIPPO teach us?
Size is not the same as buoyancy; the heaviest things stay afloat by knowing where the bottom is.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.