How to Use pygmy in a Sentence

pygmy

noun
  • African pygmy hedgehogs fit in your hand, and their spikes aren’t painful.
    — Noelle Mateer, Wired, 12 Aug. 2021
  • Plumptre’s pygmy chameleon can reach about 3 inches in length, the study said.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 5 June 2024
  • The calf, the only pygmy hippo at the zoo, will have his name go to a vote.
    — Gabrielle Rockson, Peoplemag, 20 Mar. 2024
  • Torres thinks the whales in the video belong to the pygmy subspecies of blue whales.
    — National Geographic, 2 Mar. 2016
  • The pygmy slow lorises who live at the zoo were both born in 2010.
    — Amy Schwabe, Journal Sentinel, 13 Feb. 2023
  • African pygmy falcons let out a piercing calls, scratching guests’ ears.
    — Ella Gonzales, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 8 Apr. 2024
  • There’s also a sand pit where children can dig up replicas of pygmy mammoth bones.
    — Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times, 22 May 2026
  • And with many fewer moths, the pygmy possum's future is even bleaker.
    — Ari Daniel, NPR, 12 Jan. 2025
  • The smallest snake in the state, the pygmy rattlesnake, packs a punch given its compact size.
    — Craig Shoup, Nashville Tennessean, 18 Sep. 2025
  • The zoo’s pygmy hippos, tigers and lemurs were given their own jack-o-lanterns ahead of Halloween.
    — Kelli Bender, PEOPLE.com, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Pygmy rattlesnakes are much smaller with a tinier rattle and are considered very rare.
    — Kirsten Fiscus, Nashville Tennessean, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Pygmy rattlesnakes are much smaller with a tinier rattle and are considered very rare.
    — Kirsten Fiscus, USA Today, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Tree lizards and pygmy geckos, both native to the island, linger in nearby patches of shade.
    — National Geographic, 2 Jan. 2020
  • For example, the pygmy right whale is sleeker and has a dorsal fin, whereas the right whale does not.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 20 Mar. 2024
  • The smallest of the them all – the pygmy marmoset, no bigger than a hand – is also the latest to evolve.
    — Discover Magazine, 17 Mar. 2011
  • In the case of the pygmy shrew, the only scraps the researchers found after three days were inedible fur, bone and skin.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 16 Mar. 2023
  • There are several types of mice, but the most common include house, deer, African pygmy, and field.
    — Nafeesah Allen, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 Jan. 2025
  • The prevalence of the third species, a pygmy gecko that looks like a yellow rubber fishing lure, does not appear to have changed much.
    — Geoffrey Giller, Scientific American, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Around the same time, Wildlife World Zoo will welcome a female pygmy hippo.
    — Lauren De Young, The Arizona Republic, 12 Oct. 2024
  • In recent months, several other pygmy sperm whale strandings have been recorded around the world.
    — Brendan Rascius, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2025
  • The Andes strain is primarily carried by the pygmy rice rat.
    — Lauren Dunn, NBC news, 7 May 2026
  • The wildlife in the vicinity includes pygmy goats, Iranian sheep, and black bears.
    — New York Times, 7 Mar. 2018
  • There were two silky anteaters, or pygmy anteaters, high in the branches of a nearby tree, their fuzzy, pinkish-brown tails intertwined.
    — Lucas Peterson, New York Times, 31 May 2017
  • The floor of the trail is imprinted with the footprints of the pygmy hippo and the duiker, a type of antelope.
    — Cam'ron Hardy, Chicago Tribune, 15 July 2025
  • The bird is one of four subspecies of the pygmy owl, which ranges all the way from Arizona to Argentina.
    — Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 6 Apr. 2012
  • In 2015, the zoo announced that a baby pygmy hippo had died about one week after its birth.
    — cleveland, 19 June 2020
  • Guests are welcome to visit the white pygmy goats and might even have the opportunity to pet, feed, or walk (yes, walk) them.
    — Michaela Bechler, Vogue, 25 July 2018
  • This year, a 2-year-old pygmy goat named Princess Jenny crossed the finish line first, claiming the crown.
    — Bethany Ao, Philly.com, 7 May 2018
  • While coral reef pygmy govies survive for less than ten weeks, Greenland sharks can endure more than 500 years.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 11 Nov. 2021
  • When untold numbers of people see themselves in a screaming baby pygmy hippo, what does that tell us about where things are at?
    — Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pygmy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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