mongoose

[mong-goos, mon-]

noun

plural

mongooses 

1. a slender, ferretlike carnivore, Herpestes edwardsi, of India, that feeds on rodents, birds, and eggs, noted especially for its ability to kill cobras and other venomous snakes.

2. any of several other animals of this genus or related genera.

mongoose

/ ˈmɒŋˌɡuːs /

noun

1. any small predatory viverrine mammal of the genus Herpestes and related genera, occurring in Africa and from S Europe to SE Asia, typically having a long tail and brindled coat

Word History and Origins

Origin of mongoose¹

1690–1700; < Marathi mangūs, variant of muṅgūs

Word History and Origins

Origin of mongoose¹

C17: from Marathi mangūs, of Dravidian origin

Example Sentences

Thankfully, the mongoose rampage isn’t targeting humans, though they aren’t above ground-based kitchen invasions when pushed into an environmental threat, and their toxic bites can quickly become lethal.

Read more on Salon

Bezos, eager to score prominent coverage of his fledgling company, “skittered around … like a frenetic mongoose,” Swisher recalled in her new book, published Tuesday under the title “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.”

Read more on Seattle Times

The men gazed back like mongooses caught in lamplights.

Read more on Literature

Using a decade of life-history data from a wild population of dwarf mongooses, University of Bristol researchers found that pup survival rate actually increased when the cumulative threat of conflict with rival groups was greater.

Read more on Science Daily

There’s all kinds of stuff that has tried to be a bit catlike in different ways—mongooses, things like that.

Read more on Scientific American

When To Use

Plural word for mongoose

The plural form of mongoose is mongooses (not mongeese). The plurals of some other singular words that end in -oose are also formed this way, including caboose/cabooses and papoose/papooses. The plural mongooses is confusing because the plural of goose is the irregular form geese, which derives directly from its original pluralization in Old English. However, the term mongoose only uses the standard English plural -s ending.