goanna
Syllables: go·an·na/ɡəʊ̯ˈæn.ə/US/ɡoʊ̯ˈæn.ə/
goanna noun: any of various monitor lizards native to Australia.
Noun
goanna (plural goannas)
- Any of various monitor lizards native to Australia.
- Four goannas ran up the tree, and the animals of the bush had preyed so very lavishly on the remains of mortality that the thorax and other parts of the neck, together with various portions of flesh from the body, were missing.1832 November 15, “Coroner's Inquest”, in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, page 3
- Hello! There's a goanna; that's a good sized one; but nothing to the one that I tumbled over when I was coming from the Big River.1849 April 21, “The Ring”, in Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, page 2
- A piano.
Forms of goanna
| plural | goannas |
|---|
Origin of goanna
A respelling in Australia of guana, from iguana. Rhyming slang sense 2 rhyming on colloquial pronunciation pianner.
Words formed from goanna
Words that rhyme with goanna
Questions about goanna
- What does goanna mean?
- Goanna means any of various monitor lizards native to Australia.
- What part of speech is goanna?
- Goanna is a noun.
- How do you pronounce goanna?
- Goanna is pronounced /ɡəʊ̯ˈæn.ə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of goanna?
- The plural of goanna is goannas.
Words near goanna in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: goanna (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-goanna.wav.
Cite this entry: “goanna.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goanna. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.