Examples of cannibal in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The World War II White House did not mark the opening of an internment camp by breathlessly reporting a ravenous cannibal detainee said to be eating himself while in federal custody on a deportation flight.
—
Orlando Sentinel, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 July 2025
Harvey Keitel as Gondo in Isle of Dogs For all intents and purposes, Harvey Keitel gets one scene to work with as Gondo, the leader of a pack of dogs that are rumored to be cannibals.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 12 June 2025
Over 60 years after an heir of one of America’s wealthiest families vanished off the coast of a remote island inhabited by cannibals, questions still swirl over what may have caused his untimely disappearance – or death.
—Julia Bonavita, FOXNews.com, 29 June 2025
Do the zombies need to be dead or can they just be infected with a virus that turns them into mindless cannibals?
—James Grebey, Time, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for cannibal
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Orlando Sentinel, The Orlando Sentinel, 8 July 2025
Harvey Keitel as Gondo in Isle of Dogs For all intents and purposes, Harvey Keitel gets one scene to work with as Gondo, the leader of a pack of dogs that are rumored to be cannibals.
—Joe Reid, Vulture, 12 June 2025
Over 60 years after an heir of one of America’s wealthiest families vanished off the coast of a remote island inhabited by cannibals, questions still swirl over what may have caused his untimely disappearance – or death.
—Julia Bonavita, FOXNews.com, 29 June 2025
Do the zombies need to be dead or can they just be infected with a virus that turns them into mindless cannibals?
—James Grebey, Time, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for cannibal
Cite this Entry
“Cannibal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cannibal. Accessed 21 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cannibal
noun
can·ni·bal
ˈkan-ə-bəl 
: a human being or an animal that eats its own kind
Etymology
from New Latin Canibalis "Carib," from Spanish Caníbal (same meaning), from Taino (American Indian language of the Greater Antilles) Caniba (same meaning), of Carib origin
Word Origin
On Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World the Indigenous peoples whom he encountered in Cuba and Hispaniola told him about a people living to their east, who periodically raided them and whom they greatly feared. In his log Columbus recorded a number of phonetically similar names for this people, including caníbales and caribes. The Spanish court historian Petrus Martyr wrote a Latin account of Columbus's discoveries, first printed in 1516, that used these two words and widely distributed them throughout Europe. In Petrus Martyr's words, "the inhabitants of these islands assert that the Canibales or Caribes are eaters of human flesh." Later, the meaning of the two words diverged. Caribes was applied to the Carib-speaking peoples of the Lesser Antilles and South America who were so feared by their neighbors; it is also ultimately the base of the word Caribbean. Canibales passed into English as a generic word for any creature that eats the flesh of its own kind.
Medical Definition
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