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stoat

American

[stoht] / stoʊt /

noun

the ermine, Mustela erminea, especially when in brown summer pelage.

stoat British

/ stəʊt /

noun

a small Eurasian musteline mammal, Mustela erminea, closely related to the weasels, having a brown coat and a black-tipped tail: in the northern parts of its range it has a white winter coat and is then known as an ermine

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of stoat

1425–75; late Middle English stote < ?

Compare meaning

How does stoat compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

stoat vs. mink

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.

This makes it yet another introduced species like the rat or stoat, with unpredictable behavior.

From Slate • Aug. 8, 2025

Look very closely - can you see the stoat?

From BBC • Feb. 4, 2025

On one predator-free island—home to threatened species such as a flightless parrot called the kakapo—the government spent some $295,000 over eight months tracking down a single stoat.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 5, 2024

Decked out at one point in a velvet blazer and turtleneck, hair teased into the likeness of a dead stoat, Robey is less demented sadist than disco king.

From New York Times • Mar. 9, 2023

He was a short, square-built, cotton-headed individual with the face of an angel and the cunning of a stoat.

From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023