noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of puma
1770–80; < Spanish < Quechua
Explanation
A puma is a type of big cat that looks a bit like a lion. In fact, another name for a puma is a mountain lion. Puma, cougar, panther, and mountain lion are different names for the same animal, the Puma concolor. While pumas are quite a bit larger than your family cat (weighing as much as 200 pounds), they are still considered members of the "small cat" species, which include bobcats, lynx, and ocelots, among many others. Pumas are found from northern Canada to South America, the largest range of any land animal in the Americas.
Vocabulary lists containing puma
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:
Jasper Ridge is far too small to support its own resident puma population.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 28, 2026
A puma named Muluk seemed sure that South Korea will triumph against the Czech Republic, and six giraffes hedged their bets with the Democratic Republic of Congo over Colombia.
From Barron's ● Jun. 6, 2026
When the research team applied population models to the data, the results showed that puma predation alone was unlikely to drive the Monte Leon penguin colony to extinction.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026
The female puma - later nicknamed Felicity - was caught by a farmer frustrated by a series of savage attacks on livestock.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2024
I was makin’ up a litter in the monkey-house for a young puma which is ill; but when I heard the yelpin’ and ’owlin’ I kem away straight.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
Suraci and colleagues instead focused on the Olympic Peninsula, where mountain lions -- variously known as cougars, pumas or panthers -- have long been established.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
Despite cities’ trash, speeding cars, dogs, and humans, capybaras see plenty of upsides in urban riverside living: water, food, and shelter—plus no pumas, who have been known to eat young capybaras.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
With few defenses against large carnivores, they became easy prey once pumas arrived.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026
For decades these animals – lions, tigers, pumas, cheetahs and jaguars – have been a sign of power, status and even political fealty in the country.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2025
The animals from miles around came to drink from the little pools, and the wild sheep and the deer, the pumas and raccoons, and the mice— all came to drink.
From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck
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.
