coon
Americannoun
-
coons
plural
-
Informal. raccoon.
-
Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a Black person.
-
Informal. a fellow, especially a rustic or undignified person.
Go home, you old coon!
noun
-
informal short for raccoon
-
offensive a Black person or a native Australian
-
offensive a person of mixed race
Sensitive Note
See coon's age.
Usage
What does coon mean? Content warning: this article includes content dealing with racism. Coon is an extremely offensive slur for a Black person. It’s rooted in the racist history of Blackface and comes from a shortening of raccoon.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of coon
An Americanism dating back to 1735–45; shortening of raccoon ( def. )
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:
Party A and Party B agree to share physical custody and pet costs, including veterinary, medicine, and pet-food costs associated with Beatrice, a Maine coon cat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
The owner reported experiencing eye irritation that began two days before the coon cat got sick.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2025
The costliest felines to insure were the Maine coon, one of the largest house cats, which can be prone to a type of muscle atrophy, and the chinchilla, a popular longhair, Spot Pet Insurance said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
Whether your housemate is a Great Dane or a Maine coon cat, when it comes to design, Pelletier notes, “The only limit is your imagination.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 24, 2023
I jumped behind a big sycamore and was trying hard to press my body into the tree when a big coon came tearing by.
From "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls
Of the 90 different breeds represented by the participating pedigreed cats, Maine coons had the highest number of disease-associated gene variants.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 23, 2022
One of the nine detected variants was associated with polycystic kidney disease, which is unexpected in Maine coons.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 23, 2022
He talked to the students about how he trains the hounds to hunt coons and that dogs do not automatically know.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 1, 2018
As many as 4 out of 5 raccoons carry this parasite, and infected coons typically poop out thousands, if not millions, of eggs a day—perhaps right on your lawn.
From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2015
Letting out a bellow that all but busted my eardrums and came close to scaring the mares out of their harness, he leaped down from the buckboard and took off after the coons.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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.
