How to Use tapir in a Sentence

tapir

noun
  • These open meat markets that serve everything from bats to tapirs to snake to dog meat.
    — Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 18 Mar. 2020
  • This tapir has a face full of mud after feeding at a natural salt lick.
    — Discover Staff, Discover Magazine, 16 May 2016
  • The parks are also home to tapirs, giant anteaters, howler monkeys, ocelots, and jaguars.
    — Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 5 Nov. 2025
  • Under a full moon on a hazy morning, a lowland tapir ambles down a road.
    — National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2023
  • Hu’s team also found in the tomb a complete skeleton of a Malaysian tapir.
    — Lyric Li, Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Elephants, for instance, became tapirs, with stubby trunks and legs.
    — Caroline Winterer / Made By History, TIME, 14 Jan. 2025
  • Dogs are attacking mountain tapirs in the cloud forests of Colombia.
    — Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024
  • Lowland tapirs grazing on the riverbank, their long, flexible snouts half-buried in the grass.
    — Rebecca Shaw, TIME, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Consider the tapir that used to greet me along the banks of the Amazon River.
    — Rebecca Shaw, TIME, 9 Oct. 2024
  • Rabbits, tapirs, porcupines, pigs, and birds are among the fallen at the country’s northern zoo.
    — Carlos Jasso, National Geographic, 28 July 2016
  • This area will feature jaguars, monkeys, giant river otters, capybaras, birds and tapirs.
    — Rebecca Hazen, Houston Chronicle, 9 Apr. 2018
  • This year, the reforestation team found prints from a tapir, a hog-like mammal that was once extirpated from the area.
    — Gabe Allen, Discover Magazine, 20 Nov. 2021
  • Hiking is also one of the best ways to spot the park's wildlife, including howler monkeys, sloths, jaguarundis, parrots, and tapirs.
    — Evie Carrick, Travel + Leisure, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Luna, a Baird’s tapir, had to wait 13 months for her new son to arrive on June 13.
    — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 3 July 2018
  • Related to horses and rhinoceroses, the Malayan tapir can weigh as much as 800 pounds.
    — Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 1 Mar. 2023
  • Such big urban centers require lots of food, and the Mayans hunted deer, peccaries, and tapirs.
    — Michael Price, Science | AAAS, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Mostly nocturnal, tapirs are herbivores who eat up to 75 pounds of leaves, plants and fruit daily.
    — Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 29 June 2023
  • The Baird’s tapir resembles a silly cross between a pig and an elephant with a truncated trunk.
    — Bradley J. Fikes, sandiegouniontribune.com, 3 July 2018
  • The species may have played a role similar to what tapirs and monkeys play today, as a fruit eater and large seed disperser that helped the forest thrive.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 27 Oct. 2023
  • The two sloshed through thickets of short, wrist-thick trees, along muddy trails that Inuma said had been worn down by tapirs (somewhat akin to wild boars).
    — Daniel Grossman, Scientific American, 5 Feb. 2020
  • Brontotheres are relatives of modern rhinos, horses and tapirs.
    — Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 11 May 2023
  • The lowland tapir and the giant anteater are both considered vulnerable.
    — Jill Langlois, National Geographic, 2 Oct. 2020
  • Malayan tapirs, native to the East Indies, may also make their way to Sacramento.
    — Cynthia Hubert, sacbee.com, 16 June 2017
  • The Zoo Miami tapir's escape comes on the heels of other alarming zoo incidents.
    — Anna Lazarus Caplan, Peoplemag, 1 Mar. 2023
  • Macrauchenia now belongs to a sister group of Perissodactyla, which includes horses, rhinos and tapirs.
    — Ashley Strickland, CNN, 27 June 2017
  • Travelers often visit the region hoping to spot animals like giant anteaters, river otters, tapirs and even jaguars.
    — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Wild inhabitants include the resplendent quetzal, rare species of glass frogs, and elusive animals such as the Baird’s tapir.
    — National Geographic, 8 Apr. 2019
  • Eight species have been released in Iberá, including the giant anteater, pampas deer, red-and-green macaw, tapir, and, most controversially, the jaguar.
    — Alex Postman, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 Apr. 2022
  • Vinicius Romancini, the hotel’s art concierge, says his favorites include wooden stools carved in the shape of jaguars, tapirs, and other native creatures.
    — Maya Kachroo-Levine, Travel + Leisure, 14 Sep. 2025
  • However, unlike Nyota, she has not been introduced to her fellow Baird's tapir, Iibu, a 6-year-old male.
    — Amy Schwabe, Journal Sentinel, 13 May 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tapir.' 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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