Kreatur

Kreatur is a German noun meaning a living being or creature. In everyday use it covers animals as well as beings from fiction and folklore. The term is non-technical and widely used in narrative, descriptive, and rhetorical contexts to refer to any sentient or non-sentient living entity without specifying a taxonomic class.

In fiction and popular culture, Kreatur often carries connotations of the unknown, the monstrous, or the extraordinary. It is commonly applied to monsters, beasts, quasi-humanoid figures, and other non-human characters, but can also describe unusual humans or hybrids within a story. The word emphasizes the entity as an object of observation or imagination rather than a precise scientific category.

Use across media: You will encounter Kreatur in novels, films, video games, and tabletop games, where it denotes a wide range of origins—from folkloric traditions to science fiction and fantasy. Plural form is Kreaturen; possessive Kreaturs. In academic or scientific writing, more specific terms are typically used, while Kreatur appears in dialogue, worldbuilding, and descriptive passages.

See also: Creature, Monster, Wesen.