koala

American

[koh-ah-luh] / koʊˈɑ lə /

noun

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

koala British

/ kəʊˈɑːlə /

noun

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

"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

Etymology

Origin of koala

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

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.

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

When she appears to Karsh to deliver some bad news as a koala bear, he politely asks her to stop playing around.

From Salon • Apr. 19, 2025

I wonder if she has a stuffed koala bear, too.

From "P.S. I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023