In the wolf’s scientific name Canis lupus, the genus is Canis.
Scientific names usually use binomial nomenclature: the first word identifies the genus, and the second identifies the species. Thus, Canis is the broader biological group, while lupus is the wolf’s species epithet. The name is Latin; Canis means “dog.”
The genus Canis includes several closely related canids, including wolves, domestic dogs, coyotes, and some jackals. The other options are real animal genera, but they belong to different branches or contain different kinds of canids: Vulpes includes true foxes, Cuon includes the dhole, and Lycaon includes the African wild dog.
Carl Linnaeus placed the wolf in Canis in the 1758 edition of Systema Naturae. Modern genetics confirms that wolves, dogs, and coyotes are closely related members of the same genus, although their exact species boundaries remain a subject of taxonomic discussion.