noun
Etymology
Origin of puma
1770–80; < Spanish < Quechua
Explanation
A puma is a type of big cat that looks a bit like a lion. In fact, another name for a puma is a mountain lion. Puma, cougar, panther, and mountain lion are different names for the same animal, the Puma concolor. While pumas are quite a bit larger than your family cat (weighing as much as 200 pounds), they are still considered members of the "small cat" species, which include bobcats, lynx, and ocelots, among many others. Pumas are found from northern Canada to South America, the largest range of any land animal in the Americas.
Vocabulary lists containing puma
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A puma named Muluk seemed sure that South Korea will triumph against the Czech Republic, and six giraffes hedged their bets with the Democratic Republic of Congo over Colombia.
From Barron's • Jun. 6, 2026
Animal rights groups were also concerned that Neukgu would be killed during the capture process - something that happened to Porongi, a puma that had escaped from the same zoo in 2018.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026
When the research team applied population models to the data, the results showed that puma predation alone was unlikely to drive the Monte Leon penguin colony to extinction.
From Science Daily • Feb. 8, 2026
The female puma - later nicknamed Felicity - was caught by a farmer frustrated by a series of savage attacks on livestock.
From BBC • Dec. 28, 2024
But the Song of the Family had become as fierce and sharp and feline as the snarl of a female puma.
From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
