Griffin or gryphon?
griffin is a noun meaning “A mythical creature with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle”; gryphon is a noun meaning “Alternative form of griffin”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) griffin is about 50 times as common as gryphon.
What is the difference between griffin and gryphon?
| griffin | gryphon | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A mythical creature with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle A griffon vulture, a large vulture (Gyps fulvus) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of… | Alternative form of griffin |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | griffins | gryphons |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɡɹɪf.ɪn/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 7.9 times per million words | about once in every 6 million words |
Sources: griffin and gryphon in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of griffin and gryphon
griffin
- 1
A mythical creature with the body of a lion and head and wings of an eagle
- 2
A griffon vulture, a large vulture (Gyps fulvus) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of the Bible
- 3
An English variety of apple
- 4
IndiadatedA person who has just arrived from Europe
- 5
A cadet newly arrived in British India: half English, half Indian
- 6
A watchful guardian, especially a duenna in charge of a young woman
gryphon
- 1
Alternative form of griffin
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, griffin or gryphon?
griffin appears 7.9 times per million words; gryphon about once in every 6 million words.
griffin 7.9 times per million wordsgryphon about once in every 6 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search griffin vs gryphon?
“griffin vs gryphon” is searched about 320 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“gryphon vs griffin”, “griffin or gryphon”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.