Gila

//ˈhiː.lə// adj, name, noun

adj, name, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A Gila monster.
"The dealers in live Gilas were paying local trappers twenty-five to fifty cents an inch; in turn the lizards were being sold to out-of-state dealers at one to two dollars an inch."
2
A Gila trout.
"In addition, area streams containing Gilas provide potential for far more fishing than any brown trout water — first, because the Gilas ..."

Adjective

1
Mad; crazy; insane. Singlish, not-comparable
"You gila (mad) or what? Our government good government okay?"

Proper Noun

1
A 649-mile (1,044 km) tributary of the Colorado River which flows through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States.
"Some of its tributaries rise in the mountains to the south, in the territory belonging to the republic of Mexico, but the Gila gathers the greater part of its waters from a great plateau on the northeast."
2
A census-designated place in Grant County, New Mexico

Synonyms

gila river siao

Example

"Which do you prefer, a horny toad or a Gila monster?"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Malay gila.

Etymology 2

From Spanish Gila, from a native (Yuma?) name.

Related phrases

Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Gila County Gila National Forest Gila River Gila Wilderness Gila chub Gila manroot Gila monster Gila springsnail Gila sucker Gila topminnow Gila trout

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.