English Explanatory Dictionary

civet

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. Any of the small carnivorous catlike mammals encompassing certain species from the families Viverridae, Eupleridae, and Nandiniidae, native to tropical Africa and Asia.
  2. The musky perfume produced by the animal; civetone.
  3. A spotted skunk.
  4. A ringtail (Bassariscus astutus).

Pronunciation

/ˈsɪ.vɪt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-civet.wav

Word forms

civet civets

Etymology

From French civette, from Italian zibetto, from Medieval Latin zibethum, from Arabic زَبَاد (zabād).

Synonyms

civet cat

Derived words

African palm civet Asian palm civet civet cat civet coffee civeted civetlike civetone civvy cat large-spotted civet Malagasy civet masked palm civet otter civet palm civet ring-tailed civet cat tiger civet true civet
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary