caiman
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of caiman
First recorded in 1570–80; from Spanish caimán, from Carib
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He observed tigers in India’s Madhya Pradesh, jaguars and caiman in Brazil’s Pantanal and giant pandas in the Chinese province of Sichuan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026
Palaeontologists in Colombia matched teeth marks on the fossilised leg bone of one of these fearsome birds to a caiman, or a crocodile-like reptile.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025
All of the hides were from caiman and pythons bred in captivity.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024
The costumes of the cachaceros, representing Africans, are phantasmagoric confections of old jaguar pelts, caiman skulls and peccary teeth.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
Under one of the adult caiman’s rear legs, a baby caiman hatches from its egg, and to the left is a coral snake egg.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
Fish such as wolf fish, peacock bass, and South American lungfish were especially common, accompanied by reptiles including caimans and turtles, and mammals such as capybaras, pacas, and armadillos.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2025
Gonzalez, 71, broke an international treaty by illegally importing bags made from caimans and pythons.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2024
Some parts of the river look like a swamp, with shallow, dark water full of caimans.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 22, 2021
While the biome regenerates quickly, unlike rainforest, fires often kill local wildlife, such as jaguars, caimans and giant otters.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2021
Such places were usually recognizable from afar, by the multitude of snow-white herons and of long caimans, which, finding it out before us, crowded there in peaceful unity, and with similar intentions.
From With the World's Great Travellers, Volume 2 by Various
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.
