black bear

American  

noun

1. a medium-sized North American bear, Ursus (Euarctos ) americanus, relatively common in uninhabited mountainous areas, ranging from light brown to black with a straight brown muzzle: northern populations may be gray to near-white.

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black bear British  

noun

1. a bear, Euarctos (or Ursus ) americanus , inhabiting forests of North America. It is smaller and less ferocious than the brown bear

2. a bear, Selenarctos thibetanus , of central and E Asia, whose coat is black with a pale V-shaped mark on the chest

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Etymology

Origin of black bear

First recorded in 1735–45

Example Sentences

A wild black bear took a jaunt around a Northern California zoo and was spotted visiting its bear neighbors.

From Los Angeles Times

Japanese black bears, meanwhile, are common across large parts of the country.

From Barron's

He largely blames lions and black bears, and isn’t satisfied with the state’s willingness to kill the big cats on behalf of bighorn.

From Los Angeles Times

A 550-pound black bear was still wedged in the crawl space under his Altadena home, as it had been since Sunday, giving him his 15 minutes of unwanted fame.

From Los Angeles Times

That instinct led one hungry black bear to a South Lake Tahoe home across the Nevada border, surprising an 87-year-old man who had stepped into his garage for firewood before dawn Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times