panda

American  

[pan-duh] / ˈpæn də /

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.

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panda British  

/ 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

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Etymology

Origin of panda

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

Example Sentences

The two giant Chinese pandas had to return home after Beijing announced it was taking them back, leaving Japan without any Chinese pandas for the first time in decades.

From BBC

Japan's last two pandas were even returned to China last month.

From BBC

Last month, Japan's two last pandas were even returned to China.

From Barron's

Last month, Japan's two remaining pandas -- animals long used by Beijing as diplomatic tools -- were even returned to China.

From Barron's

For decades, China has tried making friends abroad through staid state-led initiatives, from sharing pandas to building language institutes.

From The Wall Street Journal