cannibal
Other forms: cannibals
A cannibal is someone who eats human flesh. It’s a good idea not to get too friendly with one, especially if you’re covered in delicious-smelling spices.
The word cannibal comes from the Spanish word caníbalis, which was Christopher Columbus’s version of the word Caribs, the name people from the Caribbean called themselves. They meant Carib as in “brave ones” so something got lost in translation! Most cannibals are fictional — like Queequeg from Moby Dick or Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs. This word can apply to animals that eat their own kind: for example, the cannibal shrimp eats other shrimp. Ew.
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a person who eats human fleshsynonyms: anthropophagite, anthropophagus, man-eater
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Vocabulary lists containing cannibal
After a shipwreck, Rainsford thinks he's safe when he washes ashore a mysterious island — but once he meets the eccentric General Zaroff, he realizes his problems have just begun. Read the full text here.
"Stop! Thief!" are the words often shouted at him, so a young orphan takes that as his name as he struggles to survive in Warsaw during World War II.
Board the Nautilus and travel under the sea with the mysterious Captain Nemo as you learn these words from the science fiction novel by Jules Verne. Read the full text, translated from the original French by F.P. Walter, here.