Standard Lemma guide

horsemeat

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The meat from a horse.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chevaline

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the flesh of horses as food

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: horseflesh

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: meat

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- Proto-Indo-European *-ós Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós? Proto-Indo-European *h1wers-? Proto-Indo-European *wers- Proto-Indo-European *-ḗn Proto-Indo-European *wérsēn Proto-Indo-Iranian *(w)ŕ̥šā Proto-Iranian *(w)ŕ̥šāder.? Proto-Germanic *hrussą Proto-West Germanic *hross Old English hors Middle English hors English horse Proto-Indo-European *meh2d-der. Proto-Germanic *matiz Proto-West Germanic *mati Old English mete Middle English mete English meat English horsemeat From horse + meat.

Across languages

Translations

43 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: perdevleis — horse meat
  • Arabic: لَحْم حِصَان (laḥm ḥiṣān) — horse meat
  • Belarusian: кані́на (kanína) — horse meat
  • Catalan: carn de cavall — horse meat
  • Chinese Mandarin: 馬肉 /马肉 (mǎròu) — horse meat
  • Czech: konina — horse meat
  • Danish: hestekød — horse meat
  • Dutch: paardenvlees — horse meat
  • Esperanto: ĉevalaĵo — horse meat
  • Estonian: hobuseliha — horse meat
  • Finnish: hevosenliha — horse meat
  • Finnish: hevonen — horse meat
  • French: viande de cheval — horse meat
  • West-Frisian: hynstefleis — horse meat
  • German: Pferdefleisch — horse meat
  • Haitian Creole: vyann chwal — horse meat
  • Hungarian: lóhús — horse meat
  • Icelandic: hrossakjöt — horse meat
  • Ido: kavalokarno — horse meat
  • Irish: feoil chapaill — horse meat
  • Japanese: 馬肉 (baniku) — horse meat
  • Japanese: 桜肉 (sakuraniku) — horse meat
  • Korean: 말고기 (malgogi) — horse meat
  • Korean: 마육 (mayuk) — horse meat
  • Lithuanian: arkliena — horse meat
  • Maltese: laħam taż-żiemel — horse meat
  • Mongolian: адууны мах (aduuny max) — horse meat
  • Norman: viande dé j'va — horse meat
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hestekjøtt — horse meat
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hestekjøt — horse meat
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: hestekjøtt — horse meat
  • Polish: konina — horse meat
  • Portuguese: carne de cavalo — horse meat
  • Russian: кони́на (konína) — horse meat
  • Slovak: konina — horse meat
  • Slovak: koňacina — horse meat
  • Spanish: carne de caballo — horse meat
  • Swedish: hästkött — horse meat
  • Ukrainian: кони́на (konýna) — horse meat
  • Ukrainian: коня́тина (konjátyna) — horse meat
  • Vietnamese: thịt ngựa — horse meat
  • Volapük: jevodamit — horse meat
  • Volapük: jevodülamit — horse meat