- a mythological sea creature with the forelegs of a horse and the tail of a fish
- any marine teleost fish of the genus Hippocampus, having a horselike head
See seahorse - an area of cerebral cortex that forms a ridge in the floor of the lateral ventricle of the brain, which in cross section has the shape of a sea horse. It functions as part of the limbic system
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
hip•po•cam•pus
(hip′ə kam′pəs),USA pronunciation n., pl. -pi (-pī, -pē).USA pronunciation
- Mythology[Class. Myth.]a sea horse with two forefeet, and a body ending in the tail of a dolphin or fish.
- Anatomyan enfolding of cerebral cortex into the lateral fissure of a cerebral hemisphere, having the shape in cross section of a sea horse.
- Greek hippókampos, equivalent. to hippo- hippo- + kámpos sea monster
- Latin
- 1600–10
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
hippocampus /ˌhɪpəʊˈkæmpəs/ n ( pl -pi /-paɪ/)
'hippocampus' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):