leopard
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɛpəd/
ipa: /ˈlɛpɚd/
homophone: lepered
Forms: form: leopards
form: lybard
form: libbard
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”), from earlier πάρδαλις (párdalis, “leopard”), probably from an unattested Old Persian [Term?] term ancestral to Middle Persian palang, Khwarezmian plyk, Sogdian [script needed] (pwrδnk), Pashto پړانګ (pṛāng). Compare Persian پلنگ (palang) and Sanskrit पृदाकु (pṛdāku, “panther”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1990, Dorothy L. Cheney, How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species, published 1992, page 284:
text: 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.
ref: 1998, Oded Borowski, Every Living Thing: Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel, page 201:
text: Leopard skins have always been desirable commodities because of their spectacular spotted patterns.
ref: 2005, Richard Ellis, Tiger Bone & Rhino Horn: The Destruction of Wildlife for Traditional Chinese Medicine, page 197:
glosses: 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).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2005, Eric Dinerstein, Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations, page 81:
qualifier: inexact
glosses: A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
qualifier: inexact
glosses: A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
A clouded leopard (either Neofelis nebulosa or Neofelis diardi), a large wild cat native to Asia.
qualifier: inexact
glosses: A similar-looking, large wild cat named after the leopard.
The snow leopard (Panthera uncia), a large wild cat native to Asia.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1968, Charles MacKinnon of Dunakin, The Observer's Book of Heraldry, pages 68–69:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A lion passant guardant.
glosses: Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Phalanta, having black markings on an orange base.
Synonyms: sense: Panthera pardus
word: common leopard
sense: Panthera pardus
word: pard
sense: Panthera pardus
word: pardal
sense: Neofelis nebulosa/Neofelis diardi
word: clouded leopard
sense: Panthera uncia
word: snow leopard
Hypernyms: cat and wild cat
panther
Hyponyms: word: leopardess
sense: young
word: cub
sense: young
word: leopard cub
Derived terms: a leopard cannot change its spots
a leopard does not change its spots
Amur leopard
Arabian leopard
Atlantic Coast leopard frog
Bornean clouded leopard
cameleopard
Catahoula leopard dog
clouded leopard
common leopard
giant leopard moth
hunting leopard
leopard cat
leopard complex
leopard crawl
leopard cub
leopard eel
leopardess
leopard flower
leopard frog
leopard gecko
leopard ground squirrel
leopardine
leopardlike
leopard lily
leopardling
leopard lizard
leopard man
leopard moray
leopard moray eel
leopard moth
leopard orchid
leopard print
leopardsbane
leopard seal
leopard shark
leopard's head
leopard siren
leopardskin
leopard slug
leopard snake
leopard-spermophile
leopard squirrel
leopard tortoise
leopard tree
leopardwood
leopon
lipard
Louisiana Catahoula leopard dog
Manchurian leopard
pumapard
sea leopard
serpopard
snow leopard
snow-leopard
wereleopard
Related terms: word: camelopard
word: pard
word: pardal
sense: hybrid formed by a leopard and a lioness
word: leopon
sense: hybrid formed by a lion and a leopardess
word: lipard