What does "marsupial" mean?

Any member of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia, including those where the female has a pouch in which it rears its young through early infancy, such as kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums, as well as the pouchless shrew opossums.

What is a synonym for "marsupial"?

Common synonyms include: amphibian, aquatic, biped, camerated, canine, cannibal.

How do you pronounce "marsupial"?

Pronounced //mɑːˈsuː.pi.əl//.

Marsupial

//mɑːˈsuː.pi.əl// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
Any member of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia, including those where the female has a pouch in which it rears its young through early infancy, such as kangaroos, koalas, wombats and opossums, as well as the pouchless shrew opossums.
2
mammals of which the females have a pouch (the marsupium) containing the teats where the young are fed and carried wordnet

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to a marsupial.
"Showing that this animal is marsupial, consists of the following characters."
2
Of or relating to a marsupium.
"the marsupial bones"

Adjective

1
of or relating to the marsupials wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

amphibian aquatic biped camerated canine cannibal

Example

More examples

"In parts of the states of Victoria and South Australia marsupial numbers are considered to be overabundant."

Etymology

From Latin marsupium, marsuppium (“pouch, purse”), from Ancient Greek μαρσύπιον (marsúpion) or μαρσύππιον (marsúppion), variants of μαρσίππιον (marsíppion), diminutive of μάρσιππος (mársippos, “bag, pouch”); with English -al.

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