Standard Lemma guide

mastiff

noun · 3 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.

  • General-American, UK: /ˈmæstɪf/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M AE1 S T AH0 F Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

One of an old breed of powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dogs, used chiefly as watchdogs and guard dogs.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Alternative letter-case form of mastiff.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

an old breed of powerful deep-chested smooth-coated dog used chiefly as a watchdog and guard dog

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: working dog

Narrower terms: Tibetan mastiff

History

Etymology

From Middle English mastif, mastyf, an aberrant derivation (with influence from Old French mestif) from Old French mastin (modern French mâtin), from Vulgar Latin *mansuetinus (“tamed (animal)”), from Latin mansuetus (“tamed”).

Across languages

Translations

41 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: waghond — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Afrikaans: slagtershond — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Afrikaans: kettinghond — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Arabic: دِرْوَاس (dirwās) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Aragonese: mostín — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Bulgarian: английски дог (anglijski dog) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Catalan: mastí — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Chinese Mandarin: 獒 (áo) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Czech: doga — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Dutch: mastiff — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Esperanto: dogo — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Finnish: mastiffi — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • French: dogue — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Galician: mastín — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • German: Dogge — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Hebrew: מסטיף (mastiff) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Hungarian: masztiff — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Interlingua: dogo — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Interlingua: mastiff — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Irish: maistín — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Italian: mastino — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Japanese: マスチフ (masuchifu) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Japanese: マスティフ (masutifu) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Latin: canis villaticus — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Latin: canis Anglicus — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Lithuanian: mastifas — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Malay: anjing mastif — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Old English: ryþþa — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Old English: roþhund — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Polish: mastif — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Portuguese: mastim — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Portuguese: dogue — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Romanian: mastif — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Russian: дог (dog) — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Spanish: mastín — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Spanish: alano — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Spanish: dogo — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Tibetan: འདོགས་ཁྱི — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Turkish: mastif — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Volapük: doeg — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog
  • Welsh: mastiff — powerful, deep-chested, and smooth-coated dog