When writing about cats you might, from time to time, have to refer to some scientific stuff including the taxonomy of cats (scientific classification). Also if you want to add a bit of gravitas (or give the impression that you are an expert 😎) to your text you can use the word ‘felid’ instead of ‘cat’. Here is an example. Felids are invariably sprinters but they are not marathon runners because of their fast-twitch fatiguing muscles. Both these words are rarely used. They sound stilted. And there is a trend nowadays towards using plain English as it is more understandable. It is a skill to convey information through language.
Here is how you pronounce felid, felids and Felidae. They are both nouns.
Felid and felids and Felidae
What do they mean?
Felidae is a taxonomical word meaning the family of cats (mammals) in the order Carnivora, which non-scientific people call “the species of cats”. In other words the word refers to the family of cats of which there are around 37 species including a domestic cat. You might use the word in a sentence like this. Taxonomically speaking the domestic cat is in the family called Felidae which is one level below the order Carnivora. Felidae is a Latin word and it is always capitalised.
Felid is another word for “cat”. You might use the word like this. The domestic cat is the most popular felid in the world.
