Onza

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A traditional Spanish unit of mass, equivalent to about 28.76 g. historical
  2. 2
    A cryptid in Mexican folklore said to be similar to a cougar or jaguarundi but especially aggressive.

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Spanish onza (“ounce, Spanish ounce”), from Latin ū̆ncia. Doublet of a, one, inch, uncia, onça, oka, ouguiya, and awqiyyah.

Etymology 2

From Spanish onza, from Middle French once, from Old French lonce (“lynx”) by false division assuming the l was an article, from Italian lonza, from Latin lynx, from Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”). Doublet of ounce.

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