Stoat

//ˈstəʊt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Mustela erminea, the ermine or short-tailed weasel, a mustelid native to Eurasia and North America, distinguished from the least weasel by its larger size and longer tail with a prominent black tip.

    "I have never seen Stoats hunt in packs, but it is certain both Weasels and Stoats do so."

  2. 2
    the ermine in its brown summer coat with black-tipped tail wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
animalantelopearmadillobatclubsterelephant

Example

More examples

"The stoat is the cutest animal ever."

Etymology

From Middle English stote (“the ermine, especially in its brown summer coat”), of uncertain origin. The word bears some resemblance to Old Norse stutr (“bull”), Swedish stut (“bull, steer”) and Danish stud (“steer”) (see also English stot), but the semantic link is difficult unless a common origin is from “(brown?) male mammal”. First attested in the mid 1400s.

Related phrases

least weaselnorth america

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