chameleon
/kəˈmi.li.ən/
chameleon noun: a small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
Noun
chameleon (plural chameleons)
- A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
- Milk of chameleon was recommended as an erotic stimulant by Avicenna.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 59
- A contagious neuro-ego-disease. A virus sticking to liars.
We're the self-centered fuel to boost the new strain of fire.
Adapting, shifting, lacking opinion. Our numbers exceeding the billions.
Everly walking among ourselves down the corridor of chameleons.1998, “Corridor of Chameleons”, performed by Meshuggah
- A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
- He is a political chameleon, as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond.2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- Zelig
- A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.
Adjective
chameleon (not comparable)
chameleon meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
chameleon in Hindi
- reptile
- गिरगिट girgiṭ
chameleon in Tamil
- reptile
- பச்சோந்தி paccōnti
chameleon in Marathi
- chameleon
- पिसुरडा pisurḍā, सरडा sarḍā
chameleon in Urdu
- chameleon
- گرگٹ girgiṭ
More languagesFewer languages
- chameleon in Bengali
- বহুরূপী bohurupi, গিরগিটি girgiṭi
- chameleon in Telugu
- తొండ toṇḍa, ఊసరవెల్లి ūsaravelli
- chameleon in Malayalam
- ഓന്ത് ōntŭ
- chameleon in Kannada
- ಗೋಸುಂಬೆ gōsumbe, ಓತೀಕಾಟ ōtīkāṭa, ಊಸರವಳ್ಳಿ ūsaravaḷḷi
- chameleon in Punjabi
- ਗਿਰਗਿਟ girgiṭ
- chameleon in Gujarati
- કાચંડો kācaṇḍo
- chameleon in Odia
- ଏଣ୍ଡୁଅ eṇḍua
- chameleon in Sanskrit
- कृकलास kṛkalāsá
- chameleon in Assamese
- কোকলোঙা kükolüṅa
- chameleon in Nepali
- गिरगिट
- chameleon in Tagalog
- hunyango
- chameleon in Arabic
- حِرْبَاء ḥirbāʔ
- chameleon in Malay
- sesumpah, sumpah-sumpah, kameleon
- chameleon in Indonesian
- bunglon
- chameleon in Persian
- آفتابپرست âftâb-parast, خربا xorbâ, بوقلمون buqalmun
- chameleon in Thai
- คาเมเลี่ยน kaa-mee-lîian
- chameleon in Vietnamese
- tắc kè hoa, tắc kè bông
- chameleon in Myanmar
- ပုတ်သင်ညို putsangnyui
Examples of chameleon in a sentence
- The chameleon crabbled to the middle of the coffee table and defecated.
- Moonface minxed and flashed her red nails like a dancer, chameleon that she was.
- Agamids and chamaeleonids are sister-groups, presumably with the chameleons diverging early from an agamid stock.
Synonyms of chameleon
Forms of chameleon
| plural | chameleons |
|---|---|
| alternative form (archaic) | chamaeleon |
| alternative form (archaic) | chamæleon |
Origin of chameleon
From Middle English camelion, from Old French cameleon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn), from χαμαί (khamaí, “on the earth, on the ground”) + λέων (léōn, “lion”); ultimately a calque from Akkadian 𒌨𒈤𒊭𒆠 (nēšu ša qaqqari, “chameleon, reptile”, literally “lion of the ground", "predator that crawls upon the ground”). The spelling was re-Latinized in the early 18th century. The physics sense was coined by Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman in 2003 in a paper in Physical Review Letters.
Words formed from chameleon
Phrases with chameleon
Questions about chameleon
- What does chameleon mean?
- Chameleon means a small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
- What is chameleon in Hindi?
- Chameleon in Hindi is गिरगिट (girgiṭ). See Chameleon meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is chameleon?
- Chameleon can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce chameleon?
- Chameleon is pronounced /kəˈmi.li.ən/.
- What is the plural of chameleon?
- The plural of chameleon is chameleons.
Words near chameleon in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chameleon (page history and authors); पिसुरडा (Marathi) (page history and authors); گرگٹ (Urdu) (page history and authors); कृकलास (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); chameleon (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-chameleon.wav.
Cite this entry: “chameleon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chameleon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.