Quetzal

//ˈkɛt.səl// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any trogon of the genus Pharomacrus, especially a resplendent quetzal (Pharomacrus mocinno), which has very long tail feathers and is found in Guatemala and Costa Rica.

    "Included among the images that Rigoberta Menchú uses in order to subtly convey her people's ethnicity is an image of Guatemala as the "land of the quetzal.""

  2. 2
    large trogon of Central America and South America having golden-green and scarlet plumage wordnet
  3. 3
    A monetary unit used in Guatemala, equal to 100 centavos.

    "In 2002 Guatemala officially declared the U.S. dollar as legal tender to circulate in parallel to the national currency, the quetzal. This is not likely to last for long as the quetzal is not widely accepted and is considered a weak store of value."

  4. 4
    the basic unit of money in Guatemala; equal to 100 centavos wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
quetzal bird

Example

More examples

"Included among the images that Rigoberta Menchú uses in order to subtly convey her people's ethnicity is an image of Guatemala as the "land of the quetzal.""

Etymology

From Spanish quetzal, from Classical Nahuatl quetzalli (“brightly colored tail feather, quetzal feather”), from quetza (“to raise, lift”); see also Classical Nahuatl quetzaltōtōtl (“quetzal bird”).

Related phrases

costa rica

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