jaguar
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of jaguar
1595–1605; < Portuguese < Tupi jaguara
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Explanation
One of your pet cat's many wild relatives is the jaguar, a large, spotted animal that's found in North, Central, and South America. The jaguar is so fast that a famously fancy car is named after it. The jaguar, third-largest of all the cats, looks like a bigger, stronger version of a leopard. They were once common in the western part of the United States, but have nearly been eradicated there and verge on being endangered worldwide. The word jaguar is Portuguese in origin, from the Tupi jaguara, which is a general term for any large, predatory animal.
Vocabulary lists containing jaguar
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.
Catwoman appears here as a jaguar warrior, since there were no domestic cats at that point in history in the Americas.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2025
In one movement, she becomes the enchanted voice of a jaguar; in another she channels the song of the toh.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 12, 2024
"The jaguar and the caybara were so curious. They didn't run."
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2024
The animals, he remarked, “were very tame,” which he attributed to “the jaguar having been banished for some years.”
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2024
“The past is the key to the now,” he went on, and the jaguar hanging behind him hissed.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
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.
