iguana
[ih-gwah-nuh]
- a large, arboreal lizard, Iguana iguana, native to Central and South America, having stout legs and a crest of spines from neck to tail.
- any of various related lizards of the genera Iguana, Ctenosaura, Conolophus, and Amblyrhynchus.
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Origin of iguana
1545–55; < Spanish < Arawak iwana
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for iguana
Contemporary Examples
Williams would have only one more commercial success, Night of the Iguana in 1961, after his partnership with Kazan ended.
John Lahr’s Biography Perfectly Captures Tennessee Williams’ Tortured GreatnessWendy Smith
September 25, 2014
Historical Examples
The colour of the iguana changes, like that of the chameleon.
The Western WorldW.H.G. Kingston
The white and juicy flesh of the iguana was quite a feast for us all.
Adventures of a Young NaturalistLucien Biart
We found he had just discovered the nest of an iguana, filled with eggs.
On the Banks of the AmazonW.H.G. Kingston
Stephens relates how his men found an iguana in one of the ruins in a crevice.
The American EgyptChanning Arnold
A lizard or iguana calls for a further exercise of culinary knowledge.
Spinifex and SandDavid W Carnegie
iguana
- either of two large tropical American arboreal herbivorous lizards of the genus Iguana, esp I. iguana (common iguana), having a greyish-green body with a row of spines along the back: family Iguanidae
- Also called: iguanid (ɪˈɡwɑːnɪd) any other lizard of the tropical American family Iguanidae
- another name for leguaan
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Word Origin
C16: from Spanish, from Arawak iwana
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for iguana
n.
1550s, from Spanish, from Arawakan (W.Indies) iguana, iwana, the local name for the lizard.
Foure footed beastes ... named Iuannas, muche lyke vnto Crocodiles, of eyght foote length, of moste pleasaunte taste. [Richard Eden, "Decades of the New World," 1555]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper