jaguar
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of jaguar
1595–1605; < Portuguese < Tupi jaguara
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How does jaguar compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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.
Others take a more menacing tone, like a jaguar facing off with a dog in a snowy backyard.
From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2026
A notorious exotic animal dealer who sold a jaguar cub in Riverside was sentenced to six months’ probation Monday, federal prosecutors said.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 15, 2025
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
The animals, he remarked, “were very tame,” which he attributed to “the jaguar having been banished for some years.”
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2024
Perhaps the best- known subject is a man or boy gingerly holding a “were-jaguar”: a limp, fat, sexless baby with a flattened nose and a snarling jaguar mouth.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
