koala

American  

[koh-ah-luh] / koʊˈɑ lə /

noun

1. a sluggish, tailless, gray, furry, arboreal marsupial, Phascolarctos cinereus, of Australia.

---

koala British  

/ kəʊˈɑːlə /

noun

1. Also called (Austral): native bear.  a slow-moving Australian arboreal marsupial, Phascolarctus cinereus, having dense greyish fur and feeding on eucalyptus leaves and bark

---

Etymology

Origin of koala

1800–10; erroneous spelling for earlier koola ( h ) (now obsolete) < Dharuk gú-la

Example Sentences

Farallon also invested in fossil fuel projects, including an Australian coal mine that denuded thousands of acres of koala habitat and generated an enormous amount of carbon emissions.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 6, 2026

Bear, an 11-year-old Australian Koolie, was one of the first dogs in the country to be trained on the scent of koala fur.

From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026

Photos from that time show her posing with a kangaroo and a wombat and being embraced by a giant koala.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

To examine this possibility, Collin Ahrens and colleagues used the dramatic history of koala population decline and recovery as a natural experiment.

From Science Daily • Mar. 6, 2026

The Qantas koala they took for their children.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy