Skip to main content
Black Panther

Black Panther

14 6.0
A member of the Black Panther Party who fought for equal rights for African Americans in the 1960s
  • noun
  • /blæk ˈpænθər/
translation icon : Pantera Negra
  • Meanwhile, in New Haven, just about two blocks from here, well, actually all throughout New Haven, the Black Panther Party and the FBI are at a standoff.
  • Black Panther Party
  • former Black Panther
  • Black Panther newspaper

Examples

  • Bobby Seale, one of the founders, played a significant role in shaping the Black Panther Party's community programs.

  • The Black Panther Party had a 10 Point Plan which numbered

    Blog text (13)
  • Will Rush, a former Black Panther, express outrage over this tragedy?

    Blog text (21)
  • As a UCLA student, though, he had led the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party and became a target of the FBI.

    Blog text (2)
  • I am one proudly, and the ethos was instilled in me by a Black Panther, no less.

    Blog text (28)
  • By the latter part of the 1960s, the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party, and Students for a Democratic Society led constant campaigns throughout the nation, forcing citizens to take a closer look at the policies of their government.

    Academic text (2001)
  • The Black Panther Party was founded in the 1960s to advocate for the rights of African Americans.

  • The Black Panther Party became known for its militant stance against police brutality in the United States.

Surface Forms

Black Panther singular

Morphology

Black + Panther

This is a proper-name referring to a specific Marvel superhero and a cultural/political reference; knowing the words 'black' and 'panther' yields the literal animal interpretation or might evoke the Black Panther Party, but does not allow a B1 learner to infer the character's identity, role, or the Wakanda/technology context. Because the meaning depends on cultural knowledge and named-entity recognition rather than compositional word meaning, it is not predictable from the constituents.

Etymology

Black Panther comes from the image of the black panther, a powerful animal that defends itself and does not back down. Activists picked that animal as a symbol of strength and protection, so the name came to mean a 'member' of that movement.