iguana

[ih-gwah-nuh]

noun

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.

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 of iguana

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 Greatness
Wendy Smith
September 25, 2014

Historical Examples of iguana

The colour of the iguana changes, like that of the chameleon.
The Western World
W.H.G. Kingston
The white and juicy flesh of the iguana was quite a feast for us all.
Adventures of a Young Naturalist
Lucien Biart
We found he had just discovered the nest of an iguana, filled with eggs.
On the Banks of the Amazon
W.H.G. Kingston
Stephens relates how his men found an iguana in one of the ruins in a crevice.
The American Egypt
Channing Arnold
A lizard or iguana calls for a further exercise of culinary knowledge.
Spinifex and Sand
David W Carnegie

British Dictionary definitions for iguana

iguana

noun

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

Derived Formsiguanian, noun, adjective

Word Origin for iguana

C16: from Spanish, from Arawak iwana

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for iguana

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]