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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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Indigenous groups displayed signs reading "the answer is us" as an inflatable elephant and anaconda weaved through the crowd under the hot sun.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025
The new anaconda species was found while filming with National Geographic for their upcoming Disney+ series Pole to Pole with Will Smith, on which Professor Fry, a National Geographic Explorer, was the expedition's scientific leader.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2024
However, in this case, Fry and his coauthors argued that the genetic differences between the three current species of yellow anaconda are not great enough to support separate species status.
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
Anaconda offers funds — not open to U.S. investors — aimed at that transition, through electrification, metals and mining and oil and gas.
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
For Anaconda and neighboring towns, the ripple effects of this violence are deeply personal.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2025
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
The Anaconda stood in nearer, and began again to make signals.
From The Three Commanders by Dugdale, Thomas Cantrell
There, they don’t have to worry about their natural predators, like jaguars and anacondas.
From Slate ● May 27, 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
To compare ancient and modern sizes, the researchers examined 183 fossilized backbone segments belonging to at least 32 individual anacondas.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2025
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
On the second level belonged the enemies of strength: anacondas and rhinos and crocodiles of over twenty feet.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
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.
