meerkat

1 synonym for meerkat, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.

Noun — A small, burrowing mammal of the mongoose family found in southern Africa, known for standing upright on its hind legs to watch for danger.

Synonyms

Rare, literary or technical

Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.

suricate

How to use meerkat

The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.

a meerkat colony meerkats on guard duty a meerkat burrow a meerkat standing upright

Meerkat is an everyday, informal name for the animal, not a scientific term.

Etymology

The word came into English from Afrikaans meerkat, which itself was borrowed from Dutch meerkat, once used for a type of monkey. That Dutch word traces to Middle Dutch meercatte, literally 'sea cat'. An old High German form, merikazza, also existed, so any resemblance to Indian words for monkey is likely coincidental.

Full origin of meerkat →

Frequently asked questions

What kind of animal is a meerkat?

It is a small mammal in the mongoose family, native to southern Africa's Kalahari Desert.

Why does the word mean 'sea cat' when meerkats live nowhere near the sea?

The name is inherited from an old Dutch word for a monkey and never described the animal literally; the 'sea cat' meaning is just the literal sense of its distant root.

Is 'suricate' the same as 'meerkat'?

Yes, suricate is another name for the same animal, Suricata suricatta.

Nearby words

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