Noun

Singular camel

Plural camels

camel (plural camels)

1. A beast of burden, much used in desert areas, of the genus camelus.
2. A light brownish color, tan.
3. Loaded vessels lashed tightly, one on each side of a another vessel, and then emptied to reduce the draught of the ship in the middle.

Related terms

• Bactrian camel
• camelback
• cameleer
• camelopard
• camel toe

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the Bactrian camel has two humps. They are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia, and Central and East Asia, respectively. Both species are domesticated to provide milk and meat, and as beasts of burden.

The term camel Arabic جمل derived from the root "beauty",is also used more broadly to describe any of the six camel-like creatures in the family Camelidae: the two true camels, and the four South American camelids, the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña.

The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. A fully grown adult camel stands 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) at the shoulder and 2.15 m (7 ft 1 in) at the hump. The hump rises about 30 inches (76.20 cm) out of its body. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph).

Fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern camels evolved in North America during the Palaeogene period (see also Camelops), and later spread to most parts of Asia. Humans first domesticated camels before 2000 BC.

A camel is a large mammal, used in the Middle East as a beast of burden. It has (depending on the species) one or two large humps on its back.

Sourced

• It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
  • The Bible, (Luke 18:25)

• Hamlet: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel? Polonius: By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
  • William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2.

• Looking athwart the burning flats, far off Seen by the high-necked camel on the verge Journeying southward
  • Alfred Tennyson, A Fragment

• A camel's hump is an ugly lump
  • Rudyard Kipling, Just So Stories, "How the Camel got his hump"

• 'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass.
  • Rose Macaulay, The Towers of Trebizond, opening words

• The camel has a single hump, The dromedary, two; Or else the other way around; I'm never sure. Are you?
  • Ogden Nash, The Camel

Unsourced

• A camel is a horse designed by committee.

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