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agouti

agouti

1 9.9
A small animal like a large mouse that lives in tropical American forests and that people eat as food
  • noun
  • /əˈɡuːti/
  • US
: agutí
  • In some cultures, agouti is considered a delicacy and is often served at special occasions.
  • ocelot and agouti
  • called an agouti
  • agouti mouse

Examples

  • For dinner, we cooked a delicious agouti stew that reminded us of rabbit.

  • My share of the agouti was fleshy and boneless, but the girls' portions were webbed with dozens of tiny, revolting ribs that suggested something ominous about agouti physiology.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • I got the special dish for you today, girl: a nice, plump, fresh agouti.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • We ate agouti, paca, large rodents, turtle eggs, crocodile, and all kinds of fish.

    Academic text (2003)
  • The agouti scurried across the forest floor looking for food.

Synonyms

Dasyprocta
vsagouti
  • Specialized
9.9

A rodent like a large mouse that eats nuts in Central and South America

is the common, food valued small agile animal rather than the scientific term

How Big

capybara
2 7.5
agouti
  • US
1 9.9
rat
739 1.0
mouse
545 1.0

Surface Forms

agouti singular
agoutis plural

Etymology

Agouti comes from a native South American name, aguti, that Portuguese and Spanish people used for this small forest rodent. So English borrowed the local name, and agouti today still means this small animal that eats nuts and helps spread seeds.