a leopard cannot change its spots
a leopard cannot change its spots proverb: one cannot change one's own nature.
Proverb
a leopard cannot change its spots
- One cannot change one's own nature.
- King.[…]Lyons make Leopards tame. / Mo[wbray]. Yea, but not change his ſpots:1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
- Can the Ethiopian change his ſkinne? or the leopard his ſpots?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 13:23, column 1
- Synonyms:
- the wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature, the fox may grow grey but never good, you can take the person out of the place, but you can't take the place out of the person
a leopard cannot change its spots meaning in Arabic, Malay, Persian and Vietnamese
a leopard cannot change its spots in Arabic
- one cannot change one's own nature — see also what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
- الطَّبْعُ يَغْلِبُ التَّطَبُّعَ aṭ-ṭabʕu yaḡlibu t-taṭabbuʕa
a leopard cannot change its spots in Malay
- one cannot change one's own nature — see also what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
- sukar untuk meluruskan ekor anjing
a leopard cannot change its spots in Persian
- one cannot change one's own nature — see also what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
- لا تبدیل لخلق الله lâ tabdila lexalqe-llah
a leopard cannot change its spots in Vietnamese
- one cannot change one's own nature — see also what's bred in the bone will come out in the flesh
- ngựa quen đường cũ
Synonyms of a leopard cannot change its spots
- the wolf may lose his teeth but never his nature
- the fox may grow grey but never good
- you can take the person out of the place, but you can't take the place out of the person
Forms of a leopard cannot change its spots
| alternative form | a leopard can't change its spots |
|---|
Origin of a leopard cannot change its spots
Ultimately from Jeremiah 13:23.
Questions about a leopard cannot change its spots
- What does a leopard cannot change its spots mean?
- A leopard cannot change its spots means one cannot change one's own nature.
- What is a leopard cannot change its spots in Arabic?
- A leopard cannot change its spots in Arabic is الطَّبْعُ يَغْلِبُ التَّطَبُّعَ (aṭ-ṭabʕu yaḡlibu t-taṭabbuʕa). See A leopard cannot change its spots meaning in Arabic.
- What part of speech is a leopard cannot change its spots?
- A leopard cannot change its spots is a proverb.
Words near a leopard cannot change its spots in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: a leopard cannot change its spots (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-a leopard cannot change its spots.wav.
Cite this entry: “a leopard cannot change its spots.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/a_leopard_cannot_change_its_spots. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.