hippogriff
hip·po·griff/ˈhɪpəɡɹɪf/noun
hippogriff is a noun meaning “a mythical beast, half griffin and half horse, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a filly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-I-P-P-O-G-R-I-F-F and has 3 syllables (hip·po·griff), and it appears about once in every 21 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hippogriff is hippogriffs.
What does hippogriff mean?
noun
- 1
a mythical beast, half griffin and half horse, supposedly the offspring of a griffin and a filly.
To talk of being able to ride with stirrups, is trifling: get on Pegasus, bestride the hippogryph, or mount the white nag in the Revelation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce hippogriff?
- /ˈhɪpəɡɹɪf/
Hippogriff has 3 syllables, split hip·po·griff in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of hippogriff
- hippogriffs plural
- hippogryph
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hippogriff?
Hippogriff appears about once in every 21 million words in written English, the 138,319th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Hippogriff in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense creature:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hippogriffe |
| German | Hippogryph |
| Portuguese | hipogrifo |
| Spanish | hipogrifo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does hippogriff come from?
From French hippogriffe, from Ancient Greek ἵππος (híppos, “horse”, English hippo-) + γρύψ (grúps, “griffin”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).