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I know that something suitable to both land and water is called amphibious but I am looking for a word that describes something that is suitable to land, air, and water. I don't believe such an animal exists but I am still curious as to whether there is a word for it.

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    Some seabirds might be regarded as having this quality - they fly, can walk and can dive/swim. See gannets and cormorants.
    – marcellothearcane
    Apr 10, 2017 at 11:35
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    Also the loon -- not very agile on land, but an expert diver and a good flyer.
    – user1359
    Apr 10, 2017 at 13:12
  • I believe that the best-known animals that inhabit the land, sea, or air are the various species of dragon, but I think not all biomes at once for any one species.
    – Ann
    Apr 11, 2017 at 19:21

5 Answers 5

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See triphibian, defined by American heritage dictionary as

Designed to operate on land, on water, or in air.

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    Note that in "amphibious", the first part comes from the greek "amphí", meaning "on both sides", whereas "triphi" does not have a greek provenance, and is an "artificial" word, made up by replacing "am" with "tri".
    – Alex Stragies
    Apr 10, 2017 at 14:41
  • I never realised that Action Man was triphibian!
    – TripeHound
    Apr 10, 2017 at 15:04
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    @AlexStragies Sure, but tribious sounds like it would have to do with a particularly difficult-to-dislodge invasive species found on starships...
    – KRyan
    Apr 10, 2017 at 23:34
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    @Ryan: I guess you could say that, but not because they have to do with air, land and water. The Greek-originated prefix "tri-" simply stands for "three". Triathlon is called so because this sport consists of three distinct disciplines (cf. biathlon, pentathlon, decathlon). The word "triphibian" may be meant to describe specific environments something or someone can operate in but its "tri-" prefix still stands for just "three".
    – Andriy M
    Apr 11, 2017 at 14:58
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    Great question and great answer too. Last night I was wondering whether multimedia or SUV would fit the bill.
    – hlecuanda
    Apr 11, 2017 at 15:00
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If a new word is needed, why not panbious?

Exchanging the greek

amphi - meaning 'both; on two sides'

for the greek

pan - meaning 'all; of everything'.

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triphibious is okay but triphibious can also applies to 3 types of terrestrial. so the best word is AEROAMPHIBIOUS.

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    Does that appear in a any dictionary?
    – KillingTime
    Apr 10, 2021 at 5:08
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So wouldn't ollaphibios be a better word olla means all. So the word "all" in my head would refer to all of our main categories of the earth's makeup land, water, sky. Not sure if that would be the correct spelling I just looked up the Greek translation for "all".

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  • This would be improved with a dictionary reference or two.
    – KillingTime
    Feb 21, 2020 at 6:00
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    The poster is not looking for a word that can be coined for the occasion, they are curious as to if "there is a word "
    – Greybeard
    Feb 21, 2020 at 10:16
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Omniphibios would be better, I think. Or spanphibios could work. Omni - all; of all things; in all ways or places. Span - the full extent of something from end to end.

Why not invent a word for your purposes? That's what Shakespeare did.

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    This would be improved with an authoritative definition and reference for the given word.
    – KillingTime
    Mar 23, 2020 at 14:20

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