Dinictis is a genus of the Nimravidae, an extinct family of feliform mammalian carnivores, also known as "false saber-toothed cats".

It was assigned to the Nimravidae by Cope (1880);[2] and to the Nimravinae by Flynn and Galiano (1982), Bryant (1991), and Martin (1998).

Compared with those of the more recent machairodonts, its upper canines were relatively small, but they nevertheless distinctly protruded from its mouth.

It was probably not so particular about its food as its descendants, since the reduction of its teeth was still in the early stages and Dinictis had not forgotten how to chew.

It lived in the plains of North America with fossils found in Saskatchewan, Canada and Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Oregon in the United States.