Meaning of meerkat in English:
meerkat
Translate meerkat into Spanish
noun
A small southern African mongoose, especially the suricate.
Suricata and other genera, family Herpestidae: three species
‘Over the past year, we have been making a film on meerkats in the southern Kalahari.’- ‘There are wallabies, meerkats, flamingoes, maras and tamarin monkeys in both zoos.’
- ‘Some animals, including meerkats, are able to distinguish between close and more distant relatives and non-relatives.’
- ‘Faced with a potentially deadly diet, adult meerkats teach their pups how to deal with scorpions and other prey, a new study shows.’
- ‘Soon after arrival we noticed two meerkats that appeared unusually tame.’
Origin
Early 19th century from South African Dutch, from Dutch, ‘long-tailed monkey’, apparently from meer ‘sea’ + kat ‘cat’, but perhaps originally an alteration of a word from an Asian language; compare with Hindi markaṭ ‘ape’.
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips