Go to 'thermo-' entry Go to 'dino-' entry Go to 'chondro-' entry Go to 'aero-' entry Go to '-logy' entry Go to 'thaumato-' entry Go to 'nano-' entry Go to '-sophy' entry Go to 'bucco-' entry Go to '-ism' entry Go to '-lysis' entry Go to 'galacto-' entry Go to '-anthropy' entry Go to 'pneumo-' entry Go to '-ploitation' entry Go to '-lithic' entry Go to '-sepalous' entry Go to 'onco-' entry Go to '-parous' entry Go to 'dermato-' entry Go to 'multi-' entry Go to 'dodeca-' entry Go to '-zoon' entry Go to 'vermi-' entry Go to 'crystallo-' entry Go to 'biblio-' entry Go to 'eco-' entry Go to 'juxta-' entry Go to 'facio-' entry
Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
  Home Introduction About the author Types of affixes Thematic indexes Search the site   A B C D E F G H I JK L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z   Previous entry Next entry Up to index of V  

-vore Also -vora and -vorous.

An organism living on a given type of food.

[Latin -vorus, from vorare, to devour.]

Examples include carnivore (Latin caro, carn-, flesh), a flesh-eating animal; herbivore (Latin herba, herb, green vegetation), an animal that eats plants; and omnivore (Latin omnis, all), an animal or person that eats a variety of food of both plant and animal origin.

The associated ending -vorous (see -ous) supplies adjectives: carnivorous; insectivorous, feeding on insects; nectarivorous, feeding on nectar.

The suffix -vora appears in the names of animal classifications: Carnivora is an order of flesh-eating mammals that includes the cats, dogs, and hyenas; Insectivora is an order of small mammals that live on insects, such as the shrews, moles, and hedgehogs.

Visit Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words site for 2000+ articles on English!

Copyright © Michael Quinion 2008–. All rights reserved. Page last updated 23 September 2008.
Your comments and suggestions on the site are very welcome.