mongoose
Americannoun
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mongooses
plural
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a slender, ferretlike carnivore, Herpestes edwardsi, of India, that feeds on rodents, birds, and eggs, noted especially for its ability to kill cobras and other venomous snakes.
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any of several other animals of this genus or related genera.
noun
Usage
Plural word for mongoose The plural form of mongoose is mongooses (not mongeese). The plurals of some other singular words that end in -oose are also formed this way, including caboose/cabooses and papoose/papooses. The plural mongooses is confusing because the plural of goose is the irregular form geese, which derives directly from its original pluralization in Old English. However, the term mongoose only uses the standard English plural -s ending.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mongoose
1690–1700; < Marathi mangūs, variant of muṅgūs
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.
See Examples For:
However, unrestrained hunting, habitat loss and predation by the invasive mongoose left fewer than 30 in the wild by 1952.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025
Their female generals lead troops of between 6 and 40 of these little berserker weasels into battle with a plan of attack coordinated beside grizzly mongoose war veterans.
From Salon ● Apr. 15, 2024
In return, the mongoose hunted rabbits for the family, told them legends and fairy tales, and made jokes.
From National Geographic ● Sep. 19, 2023
Meerkats, slender-tailed creatures with pointy faces, are members of the mongoose family and are native to Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
The golden monkey was tenderly smoothing the fur between the sleeping dæmon’s ears, and as Ama looked, the mongoose creature stirred uneasily and uttered a hoarse little mew.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
A man who lives in a log cabin and keeps wallabies, mongooses, porcupines, parrots and other rare birds has been told to move.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
On the course, elaborate tombs of the city's past rulers poke through tangled trees that are home to peacocks, troops of monkeys and mongooses.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2025
Using a decade of life-history data from a wild population of dwarf mongooses, University of Bristol researchers found that pup survival rate actually increased when the cumulative threat of conflict with rival groups was greater.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2023
Spying swordtails, wily ravens and scheming mongooses are just three examples of the means by which animals make their power plays.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 15, 2022
The couple in 5G owns a family of mongooses.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
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