a South American boa, Eunectes murinus, that often grows to a length of more than 25 feet (7.6 meters).
any large boa.
Cards. a variety of poker in which each player is dealt seven cards, discards two, and turns up one of the remaining five before each betting round.
1760–70; misapplication of a name originally used for a snake of Sri Lanka; earlier anacandaia < Sinhalese henakandayā kind of snake
An anaconda is an enormous South American boa snake that's a great swimmer. Adult anacondas are large enough to prey on deer, capybaras, and even young jaguars. Anacondas spend most of their time in swamps and rivers. They are non-venomous, constrictor snakes that suffocate their prey and eat it whole. The green anaconda is the largest snake in the world by weight, with females growing up to 500 pounds and about 17 feet long. It is one of very few snakes that is theoretically big enough to eat a human — but that has never happened. Etymologists have various theories about the origin of the word anaconda, including the Tamil anaikkonda, "having killed an elephant."
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A research group led by the University of Cambridge examined giant anaconda fossils found in South America and determined that these snakes reached their full body size about 12.4 million years ago.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2025
Karine Aigner spotted a yellow anaconda coiled around the snout of a yacaré caiman while leading a tour group.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2024
Böhme remains unconvinced and thinks the move to combine yellow anaconda species is “premature”.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 16, 2024
In 2021, researchers discovered two female California Condors were able to reproduce without males while two years earlier, a female anaconda got pregnant by herself in a Boston aquarium.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2023
“Your mom would do that too, with one pinky, while fighting off that anaconda with her other hand. To protect you, she’d do just about anything.”
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
The founder and CEO of the Geneva-based $110 million investment management firm Anaconda Invest is banking on the energy-market transition and massive power needs of rising populations.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
"Anaconda," the new meta comedy action flick starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black as friends trying to reboot the original 1997 horror film, finished in fifth place with $10 million.
From Barron's ● Jan. 4, 2026
The sheriff's office added that the gunman's home in Anaconda had been searched, and "cleared by SWAT" teams.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2025
“It’s very frustrating because I’m here in Montana trying to organize this search,” Ms. Keltgen, who runs a petting zoo in Anaconda, Mont., said in an interview on Saturday.
From New York Times ● May 4, 2024
Hereafter oil men would speak of the Snake Creek field as copper men spoke of Anaconda or gold men of the Yukon.
From The Law of Hemlock Mountain by Lundsford, Hugh
There, they don’t have to worry about their natural predators, like jaguars and anacondas.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
Given its massive build, the snake was likely slow-moving and relied on ambush tactics, similar to modern anacondas.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 29, 2026
On a swamp called the Floating Forest, deep in the Amazon, Paul Rosolie is looking for anacondas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Khinjaria acuta is a member of a family of giant marine lizards known as mosasaurs, distant relatives of today's Komodo dragons and anacondas.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024
I also loved stories of wolves, bears, and wolverines in North America and Canada, jaguars anacondas and sloths in South America, orangutans, Indian elephants, and tapirs in Asia, and so on.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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.
