leopard

See also: Leopard, léopard, and leopárd

English

A leopard

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English leopard, leopart, lepard, leperd, from Old French leopard (“leopard”), from Late Latin leopardus (“leopon, lipard”) from late Ancient Greek λεόπαρδος (leópardos, “leopon, lipard”), from λέων (léōn, “lion”) + πάρδος (párdos, “pard, male leopard”),[1] from earlier πάρδαλις (párdalis, “leopard”),[2] probably from an unattested Old Persian term ancestral to Middle Persian palang, Chorasmian plyk‎, Sogdian [script needed] (pwrδnk), Pashto پړانګ‎.[3]

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈlɛpəd/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈlɛpɚd/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

leopard (plural leopards)

  1. Panthera pardus, a large wild cat with a spotted coat native to Africa and Asia, especially the male of the species (in contrast to leopardess).
    • 1990, Dorothy L. Cheney, How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species, 1992, page 284,
      During all such cases when we were present they responded by giving repeated alarm calls, even when the leopard was already feeding on a carcass. We wanted to determine whether vervets knew enough about the behavior of leopards to recognize that, even in the absence of a leopard, a carcass in a tree signaled the same potential danger as did a leopard itself.
    • 1998, Oded Borowski, Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel, page 201,
      The leopard (Panthera pardus or Felis pardus cf tulliana) is a close relative of the lion, but biblical references mentioning it are very few, suggesting that it was not as common.
    • 2005, Richard Ellis, Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn: The Destruction of Wildlife for Traditional Chinese Medicine, page 197,
      Leopard skins have always been desirable commodities because of their spectacular spotted patterns.
  2. (inexact) The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), a similar-looking large wild cat native to Asia.
    • 2005, Eric Dinerstein, Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations, p. 81:
      There are plenty of beautiful cats among the thirty-nine species in the Felidae family, but the three leopards—clouded, common, and snow—may be the most visually stunning. Cloaked in the most beautiful fur of any cat, the reclusive clouded leopard is the Greta Garbo of the lot; it lives a solitary life in the remote jungles of Asia, from Nepal to Borneo.
  3. (inexact) The snow leopard (Uncia uncia), a similar-looking large wild cat native to Asia.
  4. (heraldry) A lion passant guardant.
    • 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 68-69:
      Sometimes there is confusion over the heraldic leopard, the question being—When is a leopard not a leopard? There is a theory that the lion and leopard were the same thing, and that they were named entirely depending on their attitude—thus if the animal was passant guardant it was a leopard, but when rampant it was a lion. Nowadays a leopard is the genuine spotted article and quite unmistakeable. Some people still speak, wrongly, of the leopards of England, but it does no great harm as it is an ancient expression and everybody knows what it means.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

  • (hybrid formed by a leopard and a lioness): leopon
  • (hybrid formed by a lion and a leopardess): lipard

References

  1. ↑ “leopard”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ↑ “pard, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  3. ↑ “†pardal, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

From Latin leopardus (“leopard”).

Noun

leopard

  1. leopard

Declension

References

  • Mirjejev, V. A.; Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎, Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Czech

Noun

leopard m

  1. leopard

Synonyms

Derived terms

Further reading

  • leopard in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • leopard in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

leopard m (definite singular leoparden, indefinite plural leoparder, definite plural leopardene)

  1. a leopard (big cat, Panthera pardus)

Derived terms

See also

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

leopard m (definite singular leoparden, indefinite plural leopardar, definite plural leopardane)

  1. a leopard (as above)

Derived terms

See also

Romanian

Etymology

From French léopard, Latin leopardus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌle.oˈpard/
  • Hyphenation: le‧o‧pard

Noun

leopard m (plural leoparzi)

  1. leopard

Declension

Further reading

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /lêopaːrd/
  • Hyphenation: le‧o‧pard

Noun

lȅopārd m (Cyrillic spelling ле̏опа̄рд)

  1. leopard

Declension

Swedish

Noun

leopard c (pl leoparder, def sing leoparden, def pl leoparderna)

  1. leopard

Descendants

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