Illustration of gray wolf
gray wolf
noun
: a large, broad-headed, wide-muzzled wolf (Canis lupus) that has a dense, heavy coat of usually light brown or brownish gray interspersed with black above and yellowish white below and that was formerly widely distributed throughout North America and Eurasia but is now greatly restricted to the more northerly parts of its range
The only sizable gray wolf population south of Canada and Alaska continues to roam the forest-and-lake country of northern Minnesota.—
Vic Banks
Vic BanksNote: The gray wolf has been considered a threat to livestock and people for hundreds of years and has been wiped out from most of its original range by hunting, trapping, and poisoning.
called also timber wolf
Examples of gray wolf in a Sentence
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When the company unveiled the dire wolves in April 2025, some argued that even though Colossal analyzed ancient dire wolf DNA, some from 72,000 years ago, the animals were really spawned from a gray wolf genome with 20 genetic changes over 14 genes.
—Mike Snider, USA Today, 17 Feb. 2026
Around the end of 2008, the year before Montana opened its first gray wolf-hunting season, animus against the predators reached a boiling point.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2026
The 3-year-old female gray wolf when it was collared in 2025.
—Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 8 Feb. 2026
Because the state’s gray wolf population remains federally protected, USFWS is leading the investigation into the wolf’s death.
—Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 22 Jan. 2026
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Mike Snider, USA Today, 17 Feb. 2026
Around the end of 2008, the year before Montana opened its first gray wolf-hunting season, animus against the predators reached a boiling point.
—Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 16 Feb. 2026
The 3-year-old female gray wolf when it was collared in 2025.
—Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 8 Feb. 2026
Because the state’s gray wolf population remains federally protected, USFWS is leading the investigation into the wolf’s death.
—Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 22 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gray wolf
Cite this Entry
“Gray wolf.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gray%20wolf. Accessed 26 Feb. 2026.
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