el|e|phant

el|e|phant «EHL uh fuhnt», noun, plural -phants or (collectively) -phant.

a huge, heavy mammal, the largest land animal now living. It has a long, muscular snout called a trunk. Ivory comes from its tusks, which develop from the upper incisor teeth. Elephants are practically hairless; they have four or five toes on each forefoot and three toes on each hind foot. Two species, the Indian and the African elephant, exist today. African elephants have large ears and both the males and females have tusks. Indian or Asian elephants have smaller ears than the African elephants and the females often have no tusks. »

In some parts of India, travel by elephant is the only way a person can get through a dense jungle (A. M. Winchester).

╂[< Old French olifant, and elefant, learned borrowing from Lat elephantus, and elephas < Greek eléphās, -antos elephant, ivory]