Puma

How to spell puma

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce puma

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does puma mean?

1. nounA large tawny wild cat native to the Americas, also called a cougar or mountain lion.

Puma in a sentence

• The ranger tracked a puma across the rocky hillside.

• A wild puma can leap remarkable distances when hunting.

Where does puma come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

The word comes from the Quechua language of the Andes, where 'puma' was the native name for the large tawny cat that ranged across the Americas. Spanish colonists in Peru adopted the term in the 1500s, recording it in their accounts of South American wildlife, and from Spanish it passed into English in the late 1700s. The animal carries an unusual number of English names, including cougar and mountain lion, but 'puma' is the one that travelled directly from the indigenous word with almost no change in form. Because it kept its original short, vowel-simple shape, the spelling never picked up the silent letters or doubled consonants that trip people up; what you hear is essentially what you write. The same cat also lends its name to a well known sportswear brand, which has kept the word familiar in everyday writing.

How the word is built

• puma (a single, unanalysable root borrowed whole; no prefix or suffix)