Word.ws English Dictionary

meerkat

/ˈmɪəkat/US/ˈmɪəɹkæt/

meerkat noun: suricata suricatta, a small carnivorous mammal of the mongoose family, from the Kalahari Desert, known for its habit of standing on its hind legs.

meerkat: suricata suricatta, a small carnivorous mammal of the mongoose family, from the Kalahari Desert,...
Image: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

meerkat (plural meerkats)

  1. Suricata suricatta, a small carnivorous mammal of the mongoose family, from the Kalahari Desert, known for its habit of standing on its hind legs.
    Synonyms:
    suricate

meerkat meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Arabic

meerkat in Tamil

small carnivorous mammal
பாலைவனக் கீரி pālaivaṉak kīri

meerkat in Bengali

small carnivorous mammal
মিরক্যাট mirkêṭ

meerkat in Malayalam

meerkat
മീർകാറ്റ് mīṟkāṟṟŭ

meerkat in Arabic

small carnivorous mammal
سُرِقَاط suriqāṭ, مِيرْكَات mirkāt
More languagesFewer languages
meerkat in Persian
دمعصایی
meerkat in Thai
เมียร์แคต miia-kɛ́t
meerkat in Vietnamese
cầy vằn bụng đỏ

Synonyms of meerkat

Forms of meerkat

pluralmeerkats
alternative formmeercat
alternative formmierkat

Origin of meerkat

From Afrikaans meerkat, transferred use of Dutch meerkat (“guenon [monkey]”), from Middle Dutch meercatte (literally “sea cat”), compare English mercat. Sometimes suggested to be influenced by or derived from an Indian source; compare Hindi मर्कट (markaṭ, “ape, monkey”) and Sanskrit मर्कट (markaṭa). Note however Old High German merikazza, so any influence from Indo-Aryan would have to be exceptionally early.

Questions about meerkat

What does meerkat mean?
Meerkat means suricata suricatta, a small carnivorous mammal of the mongoose family, from the Kalahari Desert, known for its habit of standing on its hind legs.
What is meerkat in Tamil?
Meerkat in Tamil is பாலைவனக் கீரி (pālaivaṉak kīri). See Meerkat meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is meerkat?
Meerkat is a noun.
How do you pronounce meerkat?
Meerkat is pronounced /ˈmɪəkat/ (UK).
What is the plural of meerkat?
The plural of meerkat is meerkats.

Words near meerkat in the dictionary

  1. meercat
  2. meercats
  3. meeres
  4. meerest
  5. Meering West
  6. meerkat
  7. meerkats
  8. meerkitten
  9. meerkittens
  10. Meerlieu
  11. meers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: meerkat (page history and authors); മീർകാറ്റ് (Malayalam) (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)-I learned some phrases-meerkat.wav.

Cite this entry: “meerkat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/meerkat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.