muskrat
Americannoun
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muskrats,
plural
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muskrat
plural
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a large, aquatic, North American rodent, Ondatra zibethica, having a musky odor.
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its thick, light-brown fur, used for coats, for hats, as a trimming, etc.
noun
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a North American beaver-like amphibious rodent, Ondatra zibethica, closely related to but larger than the voles: family Cricetidae
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the brown fur of this animal
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either of two closely related rodents, Ondatra obscurus or Neofiber alleni ( round-tailed muskrat )
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of muskrat
1680–90, alteration, by folk etymology, of musquash
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How does muskrat compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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:
She held a small camcorder and was staring at its monitor, which displayed a tight shot of the larger muskrat.
From New York Times ● Aug. 30, 2022
A muskrat population oscillates 33 above and below average during the year, reaching the lowest value in January.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 1, 2021
They labeled as "high" risk animals like white-tailed deer, the Chinese hamster, the beluga whale, the giant anteater and the muskrat.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2021
Key lyric: “Forest hearth and muskrat wine / And felted touch near river’s crest.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2021
“You’re lucky,” she said, “it’s muskrat stew and there’s plenty left over tonight, eat as much as you can.”
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
While these mussels are not harvested for human consumption, larger species, like waterbirds, raccoons, muskrats and otters, regularly eat freshwater mussels, meaning the contamination could pass up the food chain, Pankratz said.
From Science Daily ● May 31, 2024
A city where bullfrogs sing in marshes, where otters and muskrats frolic along the waterfront, and where kingfishers perform aerial acrobatics into ponds thick with fish.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2023
Mussels help the ecosystem in other ways, too: Their beds make a good habitat for insects, and the mussels are a food source for muskrats and otters.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 28, 2023
Likewise, muskrats, which have a lot of fur on their ears, are often misidentified as beavers, which don’t.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
I had always looked closely when we passed the swamp, see if I could see any muskrats or water moccasins.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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.
