English
leopard
see also: Leopard
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈlɛpəd/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈlɛpɚd/
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) A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
    • 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.
    1. The clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), a large wild cat native to Asia.
    2. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a large wild cat native to Asia.
  3. (heraldiccharge) A lion passant guardant.
  4. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Phalanta, having black markings on an orange base.
Synonyms Related terms Translations
Leopard
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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