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.
Rico, who lives with Tina, a female two-toed sloth, in the zoo's jaguar house, has been regularly monitored since the surgery.
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2025
A California man paid $1,000 to rent a jaguar for an hour-long photo shoot.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 29, 2024
There’s no fishing, but wildlife sightings are common, including a very large cat — a black jaguar? — at water’s edge in early October.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 24, 2024
Lundberg and his diver companion had found fossils in the same place before, including mammoth teeth, bones of an ancient jaguar and parts of a dire wolf.
From Seattle Times • Jun. 6, 2024
It had stopped ticking sometime when he went hunting for a jaguar during the several-hundred-mile journey to reach the River of Doubt.
From "Death on the River of Doubt" by Samantha Seiple
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.
