panda

[pan-duh]

noun

1. Also called giant panda. a white-and-black, bearlike mammal, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, now rare and restricted to forest areas of central China containing stands of bamboo, on which it mainly subsists: formerly placed with the raccoon family but now classified as a bear subfamily, Ailuropodinae, or as the sole member of a separate family, Ailuropodidae, which diverged from an ancestral bear lineage.

2. Also called lesser panda. a reddish-brown, raccoonlike mammal, Ailurus fulgens, of mountain forests in the Himalayas and adjacent eastern Asia, subsisting mainly on bamboo and other vegetation, fruits, and insects, and reduced in numbers by collectors: now considered unrelated to the giant panda and usually classified as the sole member of an Old World raccoon subfamily, Ailurinae, which diverged from an ancestral lineage that also gave rise to the New World raccoons.

panda

/ ˈpændə /

noun

1. Also called: giant panda. a large black-and-white herbivorous bearlike mammal, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, related to the raccoons and inhabiting the high mountain bamboo forests of China: family Procyonidae

2. a closely related smaller animal resembling a raccoon, Ailurus fulgens, of the mountain forests of S Asia, having a reddish-brown coat and ringed tail

Word History and Origins

Origin of panda¹

1825–35; < French (Cuvier), a name for the lesser panda, perhaps < a Tibeto-Burman language of the southeastern Himalayas

Word History and Origins

Origin of panda¹

C19: via French from a native Nepalese word

Example Sentences

Affectionately referred to as trash pandas, the masked mammals known for rummaging rubbish bins for easy food, are evolving based on their proximity to humans, even starting to look cuter, a new study says.

Read more on BBC

Lumbering down the grassy mountainside in southwestern China—being careful not to slip—is a giant panda teddy bear.

Read more on Literature

In another, he joked that his friends used to call him “panda” whenever he was tired because of the dark circles that appeared under his eyes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Hermann Goering collected anything: paintings, houses, yachts, costumes, a giant stuffed panda.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

To the side lay a stuffed panda doll, dusty and discarded on what remained of a kitchen counter.

Read more on Los Angeles Times