anaconda

¹ American  

[an-uh-kon-duh] / ˌæn əˈkɒn də /

noun

1. a South American boa, Eunectes murinus, that often grows to a length of more than 25 feet (7.6 meters).

2. any large boa.

3. Cards. a variety of poker in which each player is dealt seven cards, discards two, and turns up one of the remaining five before each betting round.

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Anaconda ² American  

[an-uh-kon-duh] / ˌæn əˈkɒn də /

noun

1. a city in SW Montana.

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anaconda British  

/ ˌænəˈkɒndə /

noun

1. a very large nonvenomous arboreal and semiaquatic snake, Eunectes murinus, of tropical South America, which kills its prey by constriction: family Boidae (boas)

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Etymology

Origin of anaconda

1760–70; misapplication of a name originally used for a snake of Sri Lanka; earlier anacandaia < Sinhalese henakandayā kind of snake

Example Sentences

Karine Aigner spotted a yellow anaconda coiled around the snout of a yacaré caiman while leading a tour group.

From BBC • Oct. 8, 2024

A team of scientists on location with a film crew in the remote Amazon has uncovered a previously undocumented species of giant anaconda.

From Science Daily • Feb. 20, 2024

However, in this case, Fry and his coauthors argued that the genetic differences between the three current species of yellow anaconda are not great enough to support separate species status.

From National Geographic • Feb. 16, 2024

In 2021, researchers discovered two female California Condors were able to reproduce without males while two years earlier, a female anaconda got pregnant by herself in a Boston aquarium.

From Salon • Jun. 10, 2023

“Your mom would do that too, with one pinky, while fighting off that anaconda with her other hand. To protect you, she’d do just about anything.”

From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers