Meanings
nounmegafauna (plural megafaunas or megafauna)
plural megafaunas
- The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group.
The extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna had ended there long before it had in Europe, and so a "broad spectrum" of food collecting had been going on for some time.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 131 - A treatise on such a group of large animals.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*méǵh₂s
- Proto-Hellenic*mégas
- Ancient Greekμέγᾰς (mégăs)
- Englishmega-
- Englishfauna
- Englishmegafauna
Translations
Finnish megafauna, suureläimistö
- megafaunalarge animals
- suureläimistölarge animals
French mégafaune
- mégafaunelarge animals
Greek μεγαπανίδα
- μεγαπανίδα (megapanída)large animals
Portuguese megafauna
- megafaunalarge animals
Romanian megafaună
- megafaunălarge animals
Spanish megafauna
- megafaunalarge animals
Swedish megafauna
- megafaunalarge animals
Cite this entry
APA
megafauna. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/megafauna
MLA
“megafauna.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/megafauna. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “megafauna,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/megafauna.
Source: megafauna on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.