: a mythical, usually white animal generally depicted with the body and head of a horse with long flowing mane and tail and a single often spiraled horn in the middle of the forehead
b
: an animal mentioned in the Bible that is usually considered an aurochs, a one-horned rhinoceros, or an antelope
2
: something unusual, rare, or unique
There's the elusive unicorn: headphones that do everything well and work in any situation.—Damon Darlin
In Washington, D.C., truth is now a veritable unicorn.—Marilyn M. Singleton
… he's like baseball's version of a unicorn—a true two-way player.—Tony Paul
3
business: a start-up that is valued at one billion dollars or more
… a tech unicorn in Michigan is even more of a rarity, far from Silicon Valley's investor echo chamber.—Scott Martin
The blockbuster initial public offering is expected to kick off a revitalized market this year, encouraging IPO debuts by other unicorns, the privately held start-ups whose hefty venture capital funds have allowed them to avoid Wall Street and the legal requirements of a public offering.—Jon Swartz
Illustration of unicorn
Examples of unicorn in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the WebWhat’s more, studies show that 64% of the top 100 unicorn startups—those valued at over $1 billion—aren’t profitable at all.—Alena Botros, Fortune, 21 June 2024 Was coach Lincoln Riley’s strategy of focusing so heavily on national recruits, which worked well when Gibson and Terry committed, now backfiring?
Constituents are worried that perhaps the Trojans should have prioritized regional prospects rather than chasing unicorns across the country.—Jon Wilner, The Mercury News, 20 June 2024 Well, this is a unicorn: Mark Sloan in a stable, adult, non-tragic relationship.—Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 31 May 2024 Big firms invest in new potential unicorns that, in turn, leverage the distribution channels and talent pools of the big firms.—Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Foreign Affairs, 7 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for unicorn
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unicorn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Middle English unicorne, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin unicornis, from Latin, having one horn, from uni- + cornu horn — more at horn
: an imaginary animal generally represented with the body and head of a horse and a single horn in the middle of the forehead
Etymology
Middle English unicorne "unicorn," from early French unicorne (same meaning), derived from Latin unicornis "having one horn," from uni- "one" and cornu "horn" — related to cornentry 3, universe
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