(krĭtˈər)
noun Informal - A living creature.
- A domestic animal, especially a cow, horse, or mule.
- A person.
Regional Note: Critter, a pronunciation spelling of
creature, actually reflects a pronunciation that would have been very familiar to Shakespeare: 16th- and 17th-century English had not yet begun to pronounce the
-ture suffix with its modern (ch) sound. This archaic pronunciation still exists in American
critter and in Irish
creature, pronounced (krāˈtŭr) and used in the same senses as the American word. The most common meaning of
critter is “a living creature,” whether wild or domestic; it also can mean “a child” when used as a term of sympathetic endearment, or it can mean “an unfortunate person.” In old-fashioned speech,
critter and
beast denoted a large domestic animal. The more restricted senses “a cow,” “a horse,” or “a mule” are still characteristic of the speech in specific regions of the United States. The use of
critter among younger speakers almost always carries with it a jocular or informal connotation.
