Varanids

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Large predatory lizards belonging to the family Varanidae, found mainly in Africa, Asia, and Australia, including monitor lizards and Komodo dragons
2. Carnivorous reptiles of the family Varanidae characterized by powerful jaws, muscular bodies, and forked tongues, native to warm regions of the Old World
3. Members of the lizard family Varanidae, a group of aggressive predators ranging from small species to the massive Komodo dragon, distributed across tropical and subtropical regions

Etymology: "Varanids" is the plural of "varanid," a member of the lizard family Varanidae, which includes the monitor lizards. The name traces back to Arabic, where "waral" (ورل) was the word for these large lizards. Scientists in the modern era took that Arabic term and Latinized it as "Varanus," the genus name for monitors, and the family name was built from it. The ending "-id" is a standard zoological marker for a family. Attaching it to the genus name "Varanus" produced "Varanidae," and the English "varanid" was formed from that. So a word for lizards in Arabic reached English through a scientific Latin label rather than through everyday speech.

Synonyms: monitor lizards, lizards