Word.ws English Dictionary

change one's spots

change one's spots verb: to change one's basic nature.

Verb

change one's spots (third-person singular simple present changes one's spots, present participle changing one's spots, simple past and past participle changed one's spots)

  1. To change one's basic nature.

Forms of change one's spots

third-person singular presentchanges one's spots
present participlechanging one's spots
past participlechanged one's spots
pastchanged one's spots

Origin of change one's spots

From the proverb a leopard cannot change its spots.

Questions about change one's spots

What does change one's spots mean?
Change one's spots means to change one's basic nature.
What part of speech is change one's spots?
Change one's spots is a verb.
What is the past tense of change one's spots?
The past tense of change one's spots is changed one's spots.

Words near change one's spots in the dictionary

  1. change of the guard
  2. change of tune
  3. change of venue
  4. change one's battery
  5. change one's mind
  6. change one's spots
  7. change one's story
  8. change one's tune
  9. change one's ways
  10. change oneself
  11. change order

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: change one's 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.

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