cougar

American  

[koo-ger] / ˈku gər /

noun

• cougars,
  plural
• cougar
  plural

1. Also called mountain lion, panther, puma.  a large, tawny cat, Felis concolor, of North and South America: now greatly reduced in number and endangered in some areas.

2. Informal. an older woman who seeks sexual relationships with much younger men.

   He's in his twenties, but he prefers cougars in their forties and fifties to young women his own age.

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cougar British  

/ ˈkuːɡə /

noun

1. another name for puma

2. slang a woman in her 30s or 40s who actively pursues casual sexual relationships with young men

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cougar
  plural
• cougars
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cougar

First recorded in 1765–75; from French couguar, from New Latin cuguacu ara, cuguacuarana, apparently a misrepresentation of either Guarani guaçu ara or Portuguese çuçuarana, suçuarana (from Tupi susuarana )

Explanation

A cougar is a type of large cat — male cougars can reach eight feet long. You may have seen a cougar in a nature program about the animals of North and South America. A cougar is a feline, but these cats are not tame house pets — they are dangerous wild animals. Found all the way from Canada to South America, cougars are also called pumas, mountain lions, panthers, and catamounts. The word cougar is also a slang term for an older woman who dates much younger men. Even when it is meant to be a compliment, like any stereotype, cougar has the potential to offend — best to avoid.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cougar cougars

A coyote is bathed in red light; a cougar stalks near a grand piano; a man stands in a tropical jungle surrounded by mist; a pay phone off the hook dangles by its cord.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Wildlife officials could not determine the cause of the injuries but suspected that a vehicle may have struck the cougar, as collisions are among the leading causes of wildlife mortalities in L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

The research comes as wolf and cougar territories increasingly overlap across the western United States.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026

To better understand how evolution shaped these sounds, the researchers compared domestic cat meows with those of five wild cat species: African wildcat, European wildcat, jungle cat, cheetah, and cougar.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 11, 2026

Like asking a cougar to dance with a bear.

From "Worth" by A. LaFaye

"Research like this...helps people want to live alongside cougars," he said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Suraci and colleagues instead focused on the Olympic Peninsula, where mountain lions -- variously known as cougars, pumas or panthers -- have long been established.

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

Binder began his doctoral work at Oregon State in 2022 after spending nearly ten years monitoring cougars in Yellowstone through the Yellowstone Cougar Project.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026

A new study sheds light on the tense relationship between wolves and cougars in Yellowstone National Park.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026

The woods just beyond the property were full of bears and cougars.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• mountain lion
• panther