A gnu is a large African animal in the cow-and-antelope family. It has a heavy head, curved horns, a beard, a stiff mane, and a long tail that looks a bit like a horse’s. Up close it is not a graceful shape — the front seems too big for the back — but in a herd it can run fast. The other English name is wildebeest, which many people use more often. Huge numbers of gnu walk together across the grasslands of East Africa each year to find rain and fresh grass; that journey is famous. You say it like “new”, with a silent g.

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