wildlife

wildlife — noun

1. all the animals, birds, plants, and other living things that live freely in natu

1.nounB1
Definition

all the animals, birds, plants, and other living things that live freely in natural areas, not kept or controlled by people

Example

The national park is home to many types of wildlife, including deer and eagles.

collocation: types of wildlife

Local volunteers meet every month to protect the wildlife in the nearby forest.

protect + wildlife collocation

Common collocations
  • protect wildlife
  • harm wildlife
  • local wildlife
  • native wildlife
  • endangered wildlife
  • variety of wildlife
  • wildlife habitat
  • wildlife conservation
  • wildlife park
  • wildlife photographer
  • wildlife documentary
Synonyms
  • wild animals

    more common and narrower — refers only to animals, not plants

  • nature

    broader — includes landscapes, weather, and all natural phenomena, not just living things

  • fauna and flora

    formal or scientific term covering both animals and plants

Antonyms
  • domestic animals

    animals kept by people on farms or as pets; narrower since wildlife also includes plants

  • livestock

    animals raised on farms for food or labour

Grammar Patterns

uncountable noun — no plural form 'wildlifes'

often used before another noun (wildlife park, wildlife photographer)

Usage Note

Uncountable noun — do not add -s for plural (❌ 'wildlifes'). To refer to individual members, use phrases like 'wild animals' or 'species of wildlife'.

Common Mistakes

There are many wildlifes in the forest.
There is a lot of wildlife in the forest.
wildlife is uncountable and takes a singular verb.
The zoo has wildlife from Africa.
The zoo has wild animals from Africa.
animals in a zoo are not wildlife; wildlife refers to animals living freely in nature.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Wildlife and wild animals overlap in everyday talk, but wildlife is broader — it includes plants, birds, insects, and other living organisms, while wild animals usually refers only to mammals, reptiles, and birds. Nature covers everything in the natural world (rocks, rivers, weather), so it is too general for contexts like 'wildlife conservation'. Fauna and flora is the scientific pair for animals and plants, but it sounds formal or technical; in a school essay about forest protection, wildlife sounds more natural than 'the fauna and flora of the region'.

wild animalsnature ↗fauna and flora

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • in the wild
  • threats to wildlife

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Formed by combining 'wild' (from Old English 'wilde', meaning living in a natural state, untamed) with 'life' (from Old English 'līf', meaning existence). The compound 'wildlife' first appeared in English in the late 1800s, during the early conservation movement, as a single word to describe all undomesticated living things in a natural area.