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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of black bear

First recorded in 1735–45

Example Sentences

The showrunner of the Angeles National Forest isn’t a 500-pound black bear or a stealthy mountain lion.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2026

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 • Nov. 21, 2025

She’s also draped in fur—standard attire for a black bear.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 17, 2025

Last year, a snowboarder riding down Heavenly Mountain’s slopes crashed into a black bear cub darting across the snow, a situation that was caught on camera by a nearby snowboarder.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 7, 2025

Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini