Opossum

//əˈpɑsəm// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any American marsupial of the family Didelphidae in the order Didelphimorphia.
  2. 2
    nocturnal arboreal marsupial having a naked prehensile tail found from southern North America to northern South America wordnet
  3. 3
    small furry Australian arboreal marsupials having long usually prehensile tails wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
phalangerpossumpossumaardvarkaardwolfalpaca

Example

More examples

"Even if a hedgehog, a mole, an otter, a rabbit or an opossum looks like a rodent, it isn't."

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Algonquian *wa·p- Proto-Algonquian *aθemwa Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa Powhatan aposoumbor. English opossum From Powhatan aposoum (“white animal”), from Proto-Algonquian *wa·p-aʔθemwa (“white dog”); compare Ojibwe waabasim (“white dog”).

Related phrases

colocolo opossumgray short-tailed opossummouse opossumopossum mouseopossum ratopossum shrimpshrew opossumwater opossumwoolly mouse opossumwoolly opossumdidelphis virginiana

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