opossum
a prehensile-tailed marsupial, Didelphis virginiana, of the eastern U.S., the female having an abdominal pouch in which its young are carried: noted for the habit of feigning death when in danger.
any of various animals of related genera.
Origin of opossum
1- Also called possum.
Words Nearby opossum
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use opossum in a sentence
Kiyonari says his team is looking for other ways to tweak opossum genes to study the animals’ organ development.
An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too | Casey Crownhart | July 21, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewThe researchers had to navigate a few hurdles to edit the opossum genome.
An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too | Casey Crownhart | July 21, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewAnother interesting characteristic of opossums is that they are born after only 14 days, as barely more than balls of cells with forearms to help them crawl onto their mother’s chest.
An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too | Casey Crownhart | July 21, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewA team of researchers at Japan’s Riken Institute, a national research facility, have used the technology to edit the genes of a South American species of opossum.
An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too | Casey Crownhart | July 21, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewBy changing when the lights turned off in the labs, researchers got the opossums to mate later in the evening so that the eggs would be ready to work with in the morning, about a day and a half later.
An albino opossum proves CRISPR works for marsupials, too | Casey Crownhart | July 21, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
This little animal, the smallest and most beautiful of the opossum tribe, is exceedingly numerous in the vicinity of Port Jackson.
The parts of generation of the male and female marmose resemble, by their form and their position, those of the opossum.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume VII (of 10) | Georges Louis Leclerc de BuffonMeantime Jacky had killed his opossum and was now following their trail at an easy trot.
It Is Never Too Late to Mend | Charles ReadeI carried mine in my long, luxuriant hair, which I wore “bun” fashion, held in a net of opossum hair.
The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont | Louis de RougemontThey also busied themselves in making garments of various kinds from opossum skins.
The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont | Louis de Rougemont
British Dictionary definitions for opossum
/ (əˈpɒsəm) /
any thick-furred marsupial, esp Didelphis marsupialis (common opossum), of the family Didelphidae of S North, Central, and South America, having an elongated snout and a hairless prehensile tail: Sometimes (informal) shortened to: possum
Also called (Austral and NZ): possum any of various similar animals, esp the phalanger, Trichosurus vulpecula, of the New Zealand bush
Origin of opossum
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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