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Definition of elephant
— called also African elephant
— called also Asian elephant, Indian elephant
Illustration of elephant
elephant: 1 African, 2 Asian
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Synonyms & Antonyms for elephant
Synonyms
behemoth, blockbuster, colossus, dinosaur, dreadnought, giant, Goliath, jumbo, leviathan, mammoth, mastodon, monster, titan, whale, whopper
Antonyms
diminutive, dwarf, half-pint, midget, mite, peewee, pygmy (also pigmy), runt, shrimp
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Examples of elephant in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The baby is the Louisville Zoo’s third elephant, joining mom Mikki and Asian elephant, Punch, 49, who is not reproductive. — USA TODAY, "Rare elephant calf, two-headed rattlesnake, another quake off Oregon: News from around our 50 states," 6 Sep. 2019 The clouds advance like rutting elephants, Enormous and full of rain. — New York Times, "Waiting for the Monsoon, Discovering a Brain Tumor Instead," 31 Aug. 2019 The end-of-summer evening included animal encounters and meet-the-keeper sessions at the elephant, cougar and Reptile & Amphibian House exhibits. — Houston Chronicle, "Houston Zoo draws a party crowd to 'All About That Bubbly'," 15 Aug. 2019 First came the herbivores: elephants, impalas, buffaloes, and more. — The Christian Science Monitor, "The green grass grows all around," 9 Aug. 2019 The series will feature a number of animals, including pandas, giraffes, Galápagos tortoises, koalas, elephants, mountain lions, and two baby cheetahs. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "In 2019, can the San Diego Zoo make new fans out of TV viewers?," 3 Aug. 2019 Examples include elephants, tigers — and your neighbor’s chimpanzee. — Gary Singer, sun-sentinel.com, "Ask a real estate pro: Can my neighbor keep a pet chimpanzee at home?," 25 July 2019 An area can only maintain X amount of elephant, like all of our animals. — Taylor Mooney, CBS News, "Congress considers crackdown on trophy hunting," 19 July 2019 An elephant, rhinos, wild boars and hog deer are among the 92 animals that have died from recent flooding at Kaziranga National Park, which is also home to more than 100 tigers, the BBC reports. — Greg Norman | Fox News, Fox News, "Tired tiger takes cat nap inside family's living room while fleeing fatal floods in India," 19 July 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'elephant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for elephant
elephant
nounFinancial Definition of elephant
What It Is
Elephants are large institutions that make big trades.
How It Works
CalPERS (the California Public Employees' Retirement System) is the nation's largest pension fund. More than 1.6 million people there are employees of public institutions such as schools and local governments. To ensure that the fund has enough money to make pension payments when employees retire, it invests that money in stocks, bonds, venture capital, real estate and a variety of other assets. In 2012, CalPERS had about $234 billion invested and another $3 billion in cash.
Accordingly, it can make some very large trades and has a lot of influence in the market. CalPERS can also be a source of capital for growing companies: It invested $34.2 billion in private equity in 2012.
Why It Matters
When elephants make trades, they are often large trades that can spike (or tank) the price of a stock or other security quickly. Elephants aren't just big influencers of the markets; they're big "gets" for brokerage firms, advisory firms, or any other financial institution that retains them as customers. After all, fees are often a percentage of trade size or asset size, and thus it's usually a big deal to "bag an elephant."
Source: Investing Answers
elephant
noun
English Language Learners Definition of elephant
See the full definition for elephant in the English Language Learners Dictionary
elephant
noun
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Kids Definition of elephant
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