Meanings
plural vampire bats
- Any of the three small bats of the subfamily Desmodontinae, native to Central and South America, which use their teeth to cut the skin of larger animals while they are asleep and surreptitiously drink blood, their sole source of food.
I noticed a peculiarity which distinguished these bats from any others with which I had come in contact (and on the Rio Negro my experiences in this respect had been ghastly and terrible: men wither and die there from nightly visitations of vampire bats).
1930, Sax Rohmer, The Day the World Ended, published 1969, page xix. 172Synonyms: vampire
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny of the three small bats of the subfamily Desmodontinae, native to Central and South America, which use their teeth to cut the skin of larger animals while they are asleep and surreptitiously drink blood, their sole source of food.
More synonyms by meaning
nounany of various tropical American bats of the family Desmodontidae that bite mammals and birds to feed on their blood
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
Bulgarian прилеп-вампир, кръвосмучещ прилеп
- прилеп-вампир (prilep-vampir)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
- кръвосмучещ прилеп (krăvosmučešt prilep)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Catalan vampir
- vampirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Chinese Mandarin 吸血蝠
- 吸血蝠 (xīxuèfú)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Czech upír
- upírbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Estonian vereimeja
- vereimejabat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Finnish vampyyri, vampyyrilepakko
- vampyyribat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
- vampyyrilepakkobat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
French chauve-souris vampire
- chauve-souris vampirebat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
German Vampirfledermaus
- Vampirfledermausbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Greek νυχτερίδα
- νυχτερίδα (nychterída)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Icelandic vampíra
- vampírabat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Indonesian kelelawar vampir
- kelelawar vampirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Irish vaimpír
- vaimpírbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Italian pipistrello vampiro
- pipistrello vampirobat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Korean 흡혈박쥐
- 흡혈박쥐 (heuphyeolbakjwi)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Malay kelawar langsuir
- kelawar langsuirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Polish wampir
- wampirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Portuguese morcego-vampiro
- morcego-vampirobat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Romanian liliac vampir, vampir
- liliac vampirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
- vampirbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Russian вампи́р
- вампи́р (vampír)bat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Vietnamese dơi quỷ
- dơi quỷbat of the subfamily Desmodontinae
Cite this entry
vampire bat. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vampire%20bat
“vampire bat.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vampire%20bat. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vampire bat,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vampire%20bat.
Source: vampire bat on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.