buffalo
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
The sentence means: bison from Buffalo that other bison from Buffalo bully, in turn bully other bison from Buffalo.
Meanings (pronounced /ˈbʌfəloʊ/)
a large wild ox; in American usage, the American bison
- Vast herds of buffalo once roamed the plains.
- The water buffalo is a common draft animal across South Asia.
a city in western New York State, on the eastern shore of Lake Erie
- Buffalo is famous for its annual snowfall.
- She moved to Buffalo for graduate school.
to bully or intimidate; to confuse or baffle
- Don't let the salesperson buffalo you into a deal you don't want.
- He buffaloed the witness with rapid technical questions.
Word origin
From Italian bufalo, from Late Latin būfalus, from Latin būbalus, from Greek boúbalos ('antelope, wild ox'). The American bison was named 'buffalo' by early European explorers who confused it with the African and Asian buffalo species — taxonomically the American animal is a bison, not a buffalo, but the misnomer stuck. The proper noun (Buffalo, NY) is named after Buffalo Creek, probably named for an actual American bison sighting nearby.
Fun fact
The famous sentence 'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is grammatically valid English — it parses as 'Bison from Buffalo whom other bison from Buffalo bully, themselves bully bison from Buffalo.' All three meanings of 'buffalo' (the animal, the city, the verb) are required for the sentence to work, making it the most famous example of semantic ambiguity in linguistics.